Hangman: Review

23rd August 2022

Hangman: Review. By Rob Andrews.

By incorporating the innocent classroom game of Hangman into a string of brutal murders, Hangman follows the investigative work of two Southern city detectives, who finds themselves in hopeless pursuit of a cold and calculating serial killer. What follows is a paint-by-numbers investigation brimming with weak characters and a hollow narrative, which frequently boils down to cliched story beats and a barrage of nauseating exposition. The film’s promising lead duo find themselves unable to elevate the project beyond its shameful standards, as Al Pacino and Karl Urban turn in a performance befitting of this lackluster homicide investigation.

The more immediate issues with Hangman and its underwhelming narrative can be attributed to the nonsensical nature of its setup, which concerns the ensemble of its three leading characters. Soon after the first victim is found hanging from a towering tree branch, Detective Rainey (Karl Urban) calls his former partner, Ray Archer (Al Pacino) out of retirement, to assist him with the investigation.

The film makes no attempt to justify Ray’s sudden reemergence with a meaningful explanation, with Pacino’s character swapping crosswords for a more sinister form of puzzle. As Ray waltzes back into the lead role of an investigation following a year hiatus, Detective Rainey is also tasked with babysitting journalist, Christi Davies (Brittany Snow), who has flippantly been granted an all-access pass to this gruesome high-stakes investigation. With Rainey’s superior declaring the presence of both Ray and Christi senseless and problematic on several occasions, it is often impossible to suspend our disbelief on this matter, which is exasperated by their questionable contributions to the investigation.

Brittany Snow’s character proves to be the more culpable perpetrator in this matter, as her contributions to forensic crime scenes are often limited to the dangling presence of her trusty iPhone. As Christi sporadically records conversations and captures crime scene photos, it becomes apparent that her sole purpose in the story is to drive forward exposition concerning the investigation. Subsequently, the film is often rendered an expositional talkathon, as nauseating quantities of dialogue relating to crime scene details and verbalized emotions culminate in many a monotonous scene. This approach to storytelling only serves to inflate the necessity for captivating performances, especially from the likes of Urban and Pacino, who fail to divert our attention away from the formulaic turn of story events.

Following an awkwardly stifled engagement in their first shared scene, it becomes very apparent that Urban and Pacino suffer from a lack of on-screen chemistry, a matter which is exacerbated by the quality of material at their disposal. Whilst Urban’s authoritative nature verges on the monotonous, it is Pacino’s performance that proves the most disappointing. Hangman reduces Pacino to a subdued shell of his usual self, with his portrayal of Ray lacking his trademark charisma and energy, as his reserved southern tone often proves difficult to decipher. Considering the character’s lack of scope, Pacino can be forgiven for his lack of enthusiasm for this project, which often fails to capitalize on its Hangman-inspired premise.

Despite the game of Hangman revolving around the use of letters to decipher a word, the film shuns this refined element of mystery and instead chooses to focus solely on the identity of the killer. The absence of scenes attempting to decipher what ought to be a key story-driven clue proves to be a bizarre omission, as the film’s limited utilization of its Hangman gimmick renders it as cliched as many mediocre crime thrillers that have come before it.

The Hangman killings are dealt with in a rather flippant and underwhelming fashion, with the trio of protagonists stumbling from one hung victim to the next in a condensed time frame. Any number of car chases and crime scene discoveries are abundantly lacking in intrigue and excitement, with these set pieces failing to provide any welcome distraction from a cliched game of cat and mouse. A laughably abrupt revelation during the story’s climax concludes a one-paced and disengaging investigation, that is severely lacking in excitement, suspense, and emotional draw.

Hangman ultimately proved to be a hollow experience, with the likes of Pacino and Urban being dragged way below their usual high standards of acting. Hangman fails to capitalize on its appropriately calculated homicide gimmick, which is thrown aside to accommodate a tiresome and formulaic approach to the investigative genre, which is lacking in any stand-out moments or redeeming qualities.

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