PEANUT BUTTER FALCON – Review

North Carolina’s Outer Banks provide a unique, Southern setting for PEANUT BUTTER FALCON, a predictable road movie that benefits from one outstanding performance at its center. Zac (Zack Gottsagen) is a young man with Down Syndrome who has been situated in a senior care center by the state since he has no family or money. Popular with the elderly residents, Zac’s passion is wrestling and every day he watches a decades-old VHS tape featuring  ‘The Salt Water Redneck’ (Thomas Haden Church), an old wrestler who once ran a wrestling school that Zac thinks still exists and wants to attend. Eleanor (Dakota Johnson), a kind woman who works at the facility considers Zac a ‘flight risk’. Zac shares a room with old Carl (Bruce Dern), who’s not happy about having to watch that same obnoxious wrestling video all day but understands Zac’s desire to break fee. One night, Carl helps Zac bend back the window bars, greases him up with soap, then watches him escape into the dark, barefoot wearing just his tightly-whiteys.  Zac hides out on a boat belonging to Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), a crabber on the run from Duncan (John Hawkes) a rival whose business he’s just torched. Tyler and his stowaway bond while being chased by Duncan. At the same time, Eleanor must find Zac before her superiors can lock him away in a state hospital. Tyler and Zac set off on foot through a swampy landscape to get Zac to Salt Water Redneck’s wrestling school. When Eleanor finally catches up with them, they have built a raft and convince her (after tossing her car keys into the water) to join them on their ‘Huck and Jim’ journey down the coastline.

The best thing about PEANUT BUTTER FALCON is the casting of the surprisingly charismatic Zack Gottsagen, an actor with Downs Syndrome.  (Gottsagen was discovered by writer/directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz at a camp for young performers). His Zak is dimensional and likeable without being overly sympathetic. With hilarious deadpan delivery, he gives as good as he gets in his exchanges with LaBeouf’s Tyler. Gottsagen has a natural way, transcending the familiar story and making it feel more sincere.

Shia LaBeouf is miscast as he always is in any movie meant to be taken seriously. With his constant fist-pumping, macho howling, and bro-hugging, LaBeouf overdoes it in every scene. The baby-faced actor constantly seems to be trying to upstage Gottsagen, who acts circles around the more experienced LaBeouf with barely a change of expression. Despite all the forced bonding, Tyler’s really a jerk. John Hawke’s Duncan (with a heavily tattooed Yelawolf as his scary henchman) is nominally the film’s villain but the fact is, Tyler had stolen his crabs and burned up all of his crabbing equipment, depriving the man of his livelihood, so his quest for revenge hardly seems irrational. Dakota Johnson’s Eleanor is beautiful and smart and conveniently widowed but the romantic subplot between her and Tyler seems forced and implausible. They first meet at a backroads store, where he rudely harasses her, and then before you know it, this stunning babe is swooning for this immature and unwashed crab-poacher on the run who looks like he washes his clothes in motor oil. It doesn’t add up and Ms Johnson lacks the acting chops to convince. As Tyler’s doomed brother, John Bernthal shows up in several flashbacks, each which serve the exact same purpose. Better is Thomas Haden Church, a scene stealer as the retired wrestler affected by Zac. The entire adventure ends with a wrestling move so silly I can only assume it was supposed to be a fantasy but it hardly fits the film’s tone.

PEANUT BUTTER FALCON is a decent and good-looking movie. Its heart is in its right place, but the story gets too precious and often meanders. At only 93 mins, it felt much longer with slow pacing, pointless scenes (an encounter with a blind backwoods preacher is especially ridiculous), and predictable clichés.

2 of 4 Stars