A star cast is an asset against the game – Rolling Stone

The prison incident of Richard Matt and David Sweat in 2015 in upstate New York was compared to The acquisition of Shawshank because the duo went through the walls of their cells and borrowed a long tunnel to make themselves free. But if their methods were cinematic, their personalities – and that of Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell, the prison worker who helped them – were far away, which is a stumbling block to Showtime's otherwise entertaining entertainment. . Escape from Dannemora. The mini-series in seven episodes – which begins November 18 – contains an abundant talent in front of and behind the camera. Benicio Del Toro, Paul Dano and Patricia Arquette play Matt, Sweat and Tilly, respectively, and Ben Stiller directs each installment. Their donations are used from end to end, but in the service of characters who never quite justify the time devoted to them.

Mainly written by Ray Donovan Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin, and mostly shot in the city of Dannemora (including some footage inside the Clinton Correctional Center, where escapes the real escape), the series follows Matt's patient approach. He is a lifer nicknamed "Hacksaw" (hacksaw), for reasons induced by convulsions that have finally been explained, but he has erected himself as Red in Shawshank: the man who knows how to get things. Sweat and he work together in the prison's sewing shop, where Tilly works as a civilian supervisor. Sweatshirt is an open secret for other inmates and even guards, who are trying to alert him blindly. loyal husband Lyle (Eric Lange), to no avail. Matt is both a model inmate and a talented amateur painter who makes favors to guard Gene Palmer (David Morse) in exchange for special treatment. When Palmer inadvertently helps Matt understand that his cell and Sweat's are adjacent to an unguarded passage to the bowels of the jail, the two men begin to work for supplies and other assistance as they flee.

Prison breaks, such as burglaries, are almost always amenable to animated filming, and this one is no exception. The parts of the series on how the two drawbacks come out are fun, especially a You better call Saul– Level editing in the third episode: tailor's work contrasting with the methodical cutting of the walls of their cells and taking the fifth episode during which Sweat follows a workout through their escape route.

Until now, Stiller almost exclusively directed comedy, but he has an impressive mastery of this darker world, clearly depicting both the physical and emotional geography of the prison. And he draws a trio of remarkable and compulsively observable performances from his tracks. Del Toro is a repressed energy and oblique angles, as in a version of The usual suspects where his Fenster is now the main character. It's a delightful collection (so predictable) of choice from him. Dano plays the most delicate role, because Sweat is silent, while Matt is gregarious. But his extremely intense physical presence is striking, whether he's inside the prison, trying not to be noticed, or out of his walls, where he turns out to be the most capable fugitive.

Patricia Arquette as Tilly in Escape At Dannemora. Photo: Christopher Saunders / SHOWTIME

Arquette, meanwhile, leaves all pretense of vanity behind Tilly. She wears fine hair, oversized glasses dating back 30 years and a faded and twisted smile. And the camera is aware of every exposed pore on her face and every layer of cellulite that culminates in her cheap and ill-fitting clothes (she gained 20 pounds for the role). The performance is as ugly as the wardrobe and make-up, portraying Tilly as a cheeky and childish manipulator whose fate only works on an extreme slowness like Lyle, or a man who has no other option than Sweat.

The series treats Tilly as a grotesque for which she especially despises (and Lyle as a person for whom the filmmakers have pity, but not much). It's a coherent vision of his character, but not one that holds about seven hours of television, especially when the two opponents are painted with the broadest brushstrokes that Richard Matt could deploy. Performance invests the three leads with more life than what is stated on the page (or that Johnson and Tolkin might find in their research), which becomes a problem the more time they spend in their business.

The acquisition of Shawshank is memorable for the methods used by Andy Dufresne to get out of his cell, but even more so for his friendship with Red and the other disadvantages – and only about a third remain Escape to Dannemora. The actors and the management of Stiller keep Dannemora Most characters are quite interesting, but you can not help but wish their skills were applied to a more compelling story.