HOLLYWOOD—The film “Puncture” is directed by two men, Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen, who seem to share more than DNA. They also happen to share a similar vision, and thankfully that is what helps make this movie outstanding and intriguing through every frame from beginning to the end of the picture. Actor Chris Evans plays the marked man of the health care industry, Mark Weiss, and is absolutely thrilling and intense throughout the entire film. His performance is magnificent as well as that of actors Michael Biehn and Vinessa Shaw.
Every year, as many as close to a million hospital workers get accidentally pricked by a syringe in the process of injecting a patient with a needle. Many thousands have contracted deadly diseases such as Hepatitis and AIDS. The chilling and widely known statistics end up being the subject of "Puncture,” and directors Mark and Adam Kassen send the moviegoer on a wild ride that ends up being more frightening than the viewer’s imagination could possibly come up with.
Based on a true story, the film stars Chris Evans as Mike Weiss, a Houston-based lawyer who, along with his partner, Paul Danziger (Mark Kassen), try to keep their small law firm alive by taking every case they can possibly sign. They are the proverbial ambulance chasers we all have heard so much about in our political debate over tort reform in this country.
However, in the film, one day, the two ask to meet with a nurse (Vinessa Shaw), who was stuck by a syringe while at work and contracted AIDS. She informs the lawyers that the incident wouldn’t have happened if her hospital made use of safety needles, a type of needle that has a retractable tip and can’t be used more than once. This discussion leaves the two partners of the law firm demanding something be done about the hospital’s efforts to save money in direct conflict with medical personnel and patient safety.
The business partners soon team up with the inventor of the safety needle, a man named Jeffrey Dancourt (Marshall Bell). Weiss and Danziger work to formulate a case that would force hospitals to use the safest equipment available. But what Danziger doesn’t know is that Weiss is a highly-functioning drug addict who makes regular use of heroin, pain pills, cocaine and everything else he can get his hands on. That’s what is most amazing about the story. Evans is amazing as the drug addict who is often able to hide his own addictions from people around him. He plays it so realistically that one has to ask who he interviewed before taking this award-worthy role.
The film often weaves in and out of a dramatic piece to a character-driven piece. Many reviewers won’t like it, but I think it works so well because Evans is sublime in the role, and viewers want to see the timely topic of medical mishaps and the overpowering health care system that we often face on a daily basis. But also we needed to connect with one major character in this film to make it seem genuine and real to us. The character of Mike, played perfectly by Chris Evans, is that character. That is what makes the film work so well.
The film’s most exceptional aspect, however, is the performance by Chris Evans. His acting style in this flick is almost hypnotic. Never does he overact in any scene, yet he maintains a high degree of dramatic rises in his voice inflections whenever it’s necessary to raise the roof, so to speak. The brothers Kassen make a marvelous choice early on in the film by creating a side story in Mike’s drug addiction, which may seem unnecessary to readers of this review, but trust me, it works in an astonishing fashion by the middle of the picture.
Chris Evans is destined for an Academy Award nomination for his role as Mike Weiss in “Puncture.” The film receives Four of Five Stars from this reviewer, and it opens on Friday, September 23 around the nation. Teen girls will flock to “Abduction” starring the “Twilight” actor Taylor Lautner, but all the grownups in the household need to see “Puncture.”
