Low-level Goodfellas potent
RISE AND FALL OF A DETROIT-BASED DRUG DEALER AND FBI INFORMER
McConaughey is a great actor but newcomer Merritt doesn’t quite hit the mark.
White Boy Rick is based on a true story of a 15-yearold Detroit boy who became a major drug dealer and an FBI informer.
Set in a decaying Detroit of the 80s, with a backdrop of drugs, prostitution and gangs, Yann Demange’s production is a potent offering.
Leading the onslaught on the senses is Matthew McConaughey playing Big Rick Werche, a hapless, hopelessly inept father, whose son Rick Werche Jnr inadvertently became the city’s cocaine kingpin.
The son is portrayed by mophaired newcomer Richie Merritt.
He doesn’t quite hit the mark in the acting stakes and is too lightweight to give the impression that he’s a tough individual in a position to negotiate audacious drug deals.
There is, however, an undeniable appeal to his character, with his good-natured naivete and his genuine desire to step up for his bumbling father and provide for his dysfunctional family.
McConaughey is a great actor. He manages to elevate every scene, producing a magnetic performance of emotional intensity.
He supports his teenage son, who in any other movie would have been a secondary character. In the process, McConaughey helps smooth over the occasional storytelling missteps that occur.
The end result, though, isn’t quite as searing an indictment of the criminal justice system as Demange may have wanted – but it’s effective nevertheless.
Big Rick ekes out a living on the wrong side of the law by selling cheap firearms to gangsters.
He dreams that one day he will be a legitimate dealer. He also wants to open his own video rental store.
The movie plays out like a low-level Goodfellas.
It tracks the rise and fall of Rick Werche Jnr who becomes embedded within the gang culture of the time and also serves as an FBI informer, risking life and limb.
The agents use their knowledge of Big Rick’s felonious deeds to manipulate the son into helping them build cases against his neighbourhood drug dealers by posing as a buyer.
It’s a dangerous game.