Dead Man’s Wire review – Al Pacino stars in real life hostage thriller | Films | Entertainment

If the title of this movie sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is not dissimilar to the 2018 documentary about this real-life event. Dead Man’s Line chronicled a 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis involving Tony Kiritsis, who believed he had been swindled by his mortgage company. He had mortgaged land he believed could be developed into a shopping mall, but was unable to keep up the loan repayments and became convinced the company were manipulating and exploiting the situation, with secret designs on his land. The result was a 63-hour standoff that drew national attention. It forms the basis for this Gus Van Sant flick and, to ensure accuracy, he worked on its development with historical consultants Alan Berry and Mark Enochs, who made the documentary.

Bill Skarsgård gives Kiritsis a major glow-up as he arrives for an appointment with his mortgage broker, ML Hall (played by Al Pacino), at the Meridian Mortgage company. Since ML is on holiday, his son Richard (Dacre Montgomery – also giving the real-life character a glow up) stands in for him, oblivious to the fact that Kiritsis had planned more than a chat with his father. Within minutes of closing his office door, he is held at gunpoint.

Kiritsis wires a shotgun to his neck as a dead man’s switch – inspiring the film’s title – which is rigged to fire if he tries to escape or anyone interferes, and subsequently parades Hall through the street after notifying police he has the hostage.

After commandeering a police car, the two make it to Kiritsis’ apartment, where he has booby-trapped the doors and windows with explosives lest anyone should try and rescue his bargaining tool. He secures his prisoner to his kitchen table, and a 63-hour standoff ensues as he makes his demands known. Much of this time consists of the two men interacting – Kiritsis holding all the power and a terrified Hall desperate not to upset him further.

To garner public support and control the narrative, he also calls popular smooth-talking local radio DJ Fred Temple (Colman Domingo). Temple is more Barry White than Barbara Walters, but he airs the recording with the permission of the police, which only serves to garner even more publicity for the incident.

If you saw the documentary or know anything about the case, you know how this ends. If you don’t, I won’t spoil it for you, other than to say that truth really does prove stranger than fiction. Indeed, this whole plot is so incredulous that if it were a work of fiction, it would probably be deemed too ridiculous and offbeat to commit to screen.

Skarsgård and Montgomery completely carry this film alongside a very strong supporting cast. The entire thing hinges on their interactions and both give stellar performances. This film wouldn’t work unless you felt some empathy for both men despite their very obvious character flaws and both actors manage to pull that off with aplomb.

Van Sant has also injected a lot of humour into the script, which, despite the subject matter, prevents it from getting too intense. It doesn’t feel disrespectful to have some darkly comedic moments, as the real-life incident was absurd on many levels.

Since so much of the standoff was recorded, very little is required in the way of embellishment. If you didn’t know this had really happened, you might ask yourself what was going on in the writer’s mind when he created this.

The 1970s setting also adds to the atmosphere. The acceptable smoky haze of the era makes it feel almost otherworldly at times. Van Sant reserves judgment and leaves the audience to make up their own minds as to who was in the wrong. Overall, this film is extremely entertaining and will probably send you down a rabbit hole researching the real case.

Dead Man’s Wire is out now in cinemas.