Travolta starrer The Forger isn’t the greatest work of art

There is surely a great film to be made about the art of forgery. This certainly isn’t it, though.

John Travolta, seen here at a Scientology gala, gives a maudlin performance in The Forger. Picture: Getty Images

Times must be tough when DVD Letterbox contemplates reviewing a Tom Arnold film. Thankfully for all of us, John Travolta came to the rescue.

His film The Forger is not what it appears to be. Sorry, but this film is not focused on an art forgery, as one might have expected. Which is a minor shame because, as a subject, art forgery is arguably under-represented in cinema.

Forgery is usually used as a plot device to enhance a heist or crime drama. As it is here. Many recent court cases hint there could be juicier films dealing with forgery. Excuse me while I head off to write that screenplay, starring, let’s say, David Wenham as a forger or an Archibald Prize winner. Copyright.

DVD Letterbox rather enjoyed two recent films involving the art world, Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Best Offer and Norwegian thriller Headhunters, although both had a bit more going on than their art subplots.

As does The Forger, which stars Travolta as Ray Cutter, a convict who is sprung early from jail as a favour from another crim who, obviously, requires payback. By the way, is DVD Letterbox alone in feeling that every other film starring an 1980s or 90s star — Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sly Stallone et al — seems to begin with them doing time in jail?

Anyway, Ray had to get out because his estranged teenage son Will (Tye Sheridan) is dying. Ray’s payback, after a convoluted exposition, is “one last job” that involves painting a fake Monet (a copy of Woman with a Parasol before a switch at the Museum of Fine Arts. The film is set in Boston, so you can feel the ambition to be gritty, but the drama tends to be soggy rather than spicy. And visually it’s drab, which suits Travolta’s maudlin performance but not a film using painting as a conceit.

Travolta’s hangdog face doesn’t deliver the film’s worst performance; Abigail Spencer’s Drug Enforcement Administration agent is unconvincing amid a particularly inept investigation by the cops. Those performances contrast with a few solid ones that keep you interested: Christopher Plummer is fun in a coarse, tough-guy dad role; DVD Letterbox fave Jennifer Ehle brings more to the standard addict role than you normally see; and Sheridan is pretty good.

British TV director Philip Martin (Prime Suspect, Wallander) is polished enough technically but struggles with Richard D’Ovidio’s script — which doesn’t adequately explain the characters, while the plot grows steadily more implausible.

The main purpose of The Forger (M, Becker, 96min, $29.99), at least as far as the casting of Travolta is concerned, appears to be to provide reviewers with an opportunity for target practice. Which is unfair, because it isn’t an altogether terrible film, merely a mediocre one.

This week

Strangerland (MA15+)

Transmission (112min, $29.99)

The Decline of Western Civilization Collection (MA15+)

ViaVision (400min, $49.95)

The Casual Vacancy (M)

Warner (205min, $29.95)

Home (PG)

Fox (94min, $24.95)

Twitter: @michaelbodey