Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.
The 2017 remake of Papillon is a competent, well-mounted prison drama that faithfully retells the story of Henri Charrière's harrowing escape attempts from Devil's Island. Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek deliver solid performances, though they inevitably invite comparisons to McQueen and Hoffman from the 1973 original, never quite surpassing them. The cinematography is professional and captures the brutal environments effectively but lacks the iconic visual weight of the original. As a remake of a classic, Novelty scores low — it largely treads familiar ground without offering a meaningfully distinct take on the material. The plot follows the known beats competently, and the ending, depicting Papillon's final desperate escape, carries emotional resonance even if it feels slightly rushed compared to the original's more contemplative close.