Review: The Devil Has a Name

Loosely based on truth, Kate Bosworth is the shit-kicking executive of a Texas-based oil company that wants farmer David Strathairn to sell the rights to part of his land. This same company has already polluted the soil nearby, so he’s not in any hurry to sell. This puts more pressure on Bosworth, especially when company HQ sends in sociopathic fixer Pablo Schreiber to get the job done by any means necessary, including frightening the hell out of Strathairn’s Hispanic friend and farm foreman Edward James Olmos. Eventually Straithairn seeks legal representation from high-priced but morally crusading lawyer Martin Sheen. Haley Joel Osment plays an oil company employee who gives Strathairn a low-ball offer.

 

Director/co-star Edward James Olmos (best known as an actor in “Stand and Deliver” and “Blade Runner”) and his screenwriter Rob McEveety (a first-timer who produced the film) are clearly very passionate and angry. Unfortunately, they’ve let that anger and passion run riot over this well-intentioned, but dreadfully hammy thriller from 2020. I wasn’t a fan of “Erin Brockovich”, but it comes off like “Citizen Kane” in comparison to this unsubtle, sometimes infantile, often poorly acted film.

 

It’s the kind of irritating film where the title is pretentiously mentioned in dialogue five minutes in. And it only gets worse from there, with a horribly miscast Kate Bosworth, who while lightweight at best, isn’t normally this bad. She simply hasn’t the presence or toughness for the part and I don’t think the script really introduces her character enough at the outset to make it work, 90 minutes is far too short obviously. The versatile Alfred Molina gives one of his worst, least subtle performances ever as well and even David Strathairn has seen better days. Don’t even get me started on the terribly overdone character played by a typecast Pablo Schreiber, who seems to think he’s in a Coen Brothers film or something. Then again, none of the characters here behave realistically (The opposing counsel in particular is total bullshit). The only bright note in the cast is Haley Joel Osment doing fine character work until he too is forced into caricature in the second half. Still, he comes out of it with a lot less egg on his face than anyone else (Martin Sheen is OK in a dull role he can’t do much with).

 

I’m far from a Conservative but the open Trump bashing Olmos does here (both in his on-screen performance and as a filmmaker) is infantile and dumb. I don’t think too many people will feel poorly towards this film’s environmental POV, but there’s subjective and then there’s caricatured and biased to the point of doing damage to the credibility of the story you’re telling. Olmos’ direction here is ham-fisted and annoying with far too much reliance on close-ups.

 

One of the least convincingly told ‘true’ stories ever made, especially one criminal act towards the end that I simply didn’t believe for a second. Of all the films about ‘the little guy’ standing up to the big bad American corporations doing environmental damage, this misguided and heavy-handed misfire is by far the worst I’ve seen. Nothing works here, though Haley Joel Osment comes out of it looking better than anyone else. Horribly botched to the point of high camp – though that might make it sound entertaining, which it isn’t. Olmos’ POV and obvious outrage are laudable, but he should never have let it get in the way of telling the story like he has here.

 

Rating: D-