Sean Penn’s actorliness undermines this remake of the 1949 Best Picture, itself based on Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. As Willie Stark, a self-professed hick who rises to political power in 1940s Louisiana but loses his soul along the way, Penn roars not like the good actor he is – or, more important, like Stark would do – but more like the domineering screen presence we expect him to be. Neither Penn nor writer-director Steve Zaillian offer a real sense of Stark’s transformation – which is the very point of this story. Wasted is a fine cast that includes Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins.
