You probably haven’t heard of Misconduct, a new legal thriller starring Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, Josh Duhamel, and Julia Styles. It’s about a lawyer, played by Duhamel, who takes on a crooked (what else?) pharmaceutical executive, played by Hopkins. Malin Akerman plays a woman who seduces Duhamel, who is married. It’s all very steamy. And apparently all very bad, as critics slammed it to the point that, when it opened in Britain this past weekend, it earned only $141.
Variety reports that the film opened in just five theaters on Friday, and that’s absolutely fine. Plenty of small films open in just five theaters! The worst of it is that, in those five theaters, they made only an average of $30 per, though it was actually probably more like $28 — and those two dollars matter in this case, folks.
Misconduct currently has an 8% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, which is surprising. How can a star-packed law thriller go so far wrong as to earn such scorn? Well, the New York Times‘ Stephen Holden said that “Malin Akerman, as the plutocrat’s scheming girlfriend, wildly overacts the role of a film noir temptress,” and “As for Mr. Duhamel, this human vanilla milkshake seems totally lost in a movie that requires him to be more than a generic nice guy with a pretty face.” Ouch. The Los Angeles Times‘ Robert Abele was more direct, saying, “Misconduct is aptly named in that watching this ludicrous legal thriller inspires dreams of a multi-count indictment.”
It’s worth noting that this thing only made about $15,000 in its opening U.S. weekend, so, it wasn’t just the Brits who hated it. At any rate, it’s available on Amazon for $3.99, in case you’re wondering what’s so bad about it, or how two great actors could have gone so wrong.
Oh, and here’s a trailer.