A well-made drama about a pair of young attorneys and a potentially explosive case, "Puncture" has the unusual problem of being almost too intriguing: Its based-on-true-events story seems to cry out for documentary treatment.
Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) and Paul Danziger (Mark Kassen) run a small law practice in Houston in the late '90s, making a living on personal-injury cases. They meet an ER nurse (Vinessa Shaw) who contracted HIV from an accidental needle prick on the job and wants them to help her fight hospital resistance to a newly invented safety needle. Mike is intrigued, Paul is reluctant, and soon the two are swept into a case that's far more wide-reaching, and more dangerous, than it initially seemed.
Directed by the sibling duo of Adam and Mark Kassen (the real-life Danziger is an executive producer), the film moves swiftly and efficiently through its story - always diverting and often thoughtful, particularly in Evans' charismatic performance. But the writing sometimes feels generic, with each character a type: Mike is an irresponsible drug user; Paul a straight-arrow family man; Vicky, the nurse, a dying saint.
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The movie's endnotes leave us wanting to know much more about this fascinating real-life case - which reveals, yet again, the sorry state of health-care finances in this country - and its aftermath.
You wonder if a documentary might have been more powerful than this film. But then again, "Puncture" leaves its audience thinking, and that's more than a lot of movies can do.
Review
Puncture
***
• Rated: R for drug use, language, some nudity and a sexual reference.
• Directors: Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen.
• Cast: Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Brett Cullen, Marshall Bell, Vinessa Shaw, Kate Burton.
• Running time: 99 minutes.
