Lee Daniels' follow-up to the powerful Precious is an atmospheric work of Southern Gothic, based on a novel by Pete Dexter. Some might be precious (!) about their favourite books, but great films have been made which bear little resemblance to their source material, as fans of Dr Strangelove will know. I wouldn't call The Paperboy great, but with weightless yawners like Hansel & Gretel and Oz currently clogging the cinema, its rawness and energy is like licking an electric fence. In a good way. Grainy, saturated and wilfully unfocused, The Paperboy is a reminder of the power of 2D.

Matthew McConaughey continues his resurgence, tapping into a hitherto hidden vulnerability. He plays Ward Jansen, a journalist who arrives in the back-of-beyond with his partner, Yardley (David Oyelowo). They're in town to write a story about the unlawful conviction of Hilary Van Wetter (John Cusack). To entice him they employ Charlotte (Nicole Kidman, fearless), who's in love with Hilary, or the idea of Hilary. Finally, and centrally, there is scared, smouldering Jack Jansen, played by a very capable Zac Efron.

Jack wants to steal Charlotte away from all this: the alligator-gutters and the insufferable heat. Nicole thinks he knows nothing because he's young, but one of the films myriad themes is the value of youthful idealism: Jack is the only one of the main characters yet to plunge down a rabbit-hole of hopelessness and self-service. There is genuine affection on show, though, of the brotherly kind between Ward and Jack, and the motherly kind between Jack and Anita (a subtle and funny Macy Gray; further proof of Daniels' aptitude for bringing the best and least showy from musicians-turned-actors).

The film is ramshackle and imperfect - but this kind of works. It skitters along with little attention paid to the audience, with precise relationships between characters rarely spelled out, and chunks of action entirely elided. It's not quite as funny or bleak as the similarly southern-fried Killer Joe, but I do believe that The Paperboy has a more humanist agenda than William Friedkin's film, basically emerging on the side of people, broken as they often become.

Like Precious, this is a film containing difficult individual scenes, and a troubling ambivalence about whether we're investing in a set of real characters or peering at them through museum glass. But there's no doubt, when the camera starts rolling, that Daniels sets out to challenge his audience. In that respect, he has succeeded.

It's the 60s South Florida. Anita Chester (Macy Gray) is the maid in the Jansen household and retells the events. Reporter brother Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) returns home with his London friend Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo) to investigate the murder of local sheriff Thurmond Call by Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack) who is now on death row. Ward doesn't approve of the death penalty and Jack Jansen (Zac Efron) tags along as the driver. Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) has been writing Hillary in jail and tries to help the investigation.

Macy Gray is off-putting as the maid. It's a supporting role but she starts the movie on the wrong foot. I really don't like her voice or her narration. It distracts from the story. Zac Efron seems lost in this movie although his character is a little lost. David Oyelowo lacks any screen presence. He's no Sydney Poitier especially with every white person doing a double take and calling him boy. Nicole Kidman is going full-on white trash. This is a movie where Nicole Kidman has taken over the whole story. It's almost incidental as to what this movie is actually about. John Cusack is also playing big as the racist white trash. Matthew McConaughey tries his best to be the straight man in a rambling mess, but this movie is lost in all the mannerisms. The murder mystery matters little.

Zac Efron is once again putting distance between him and the Magic Kingdom's High School Musical series by spending about half his time in this film's title role walking around in his underwear.

And Zac has some real heavyweight talent in this film to support him. He plays the younger of two sons, the elder being Matthew McConaughey, of Scott Glenn who runs the local paper in one of the Florida panhandle Dixie counties. Zac who was a champion swimmer in college, but got kicked out of school now is a glorified paper boy as he drives the delivery truck in the early morning hours for distribution.

McConaughey comes home with colleague David Oyelowo from the Miami Herald and they are a team investigating the conviction of peckerwood John Cusack of shooting the local sheriff. Cusack is on death row having been convicted at trial. But he like so many prisoners gets himself a pen pal in white trash Nicole Kidman who has interested the Miami Herald in the case.

The film is told in flashback by Macy Gray who was the maid in Scott Glenn's house and saw it all and presumably heard a few details from Efron. A whole lot of secrets about all the principal players come out before the end of the film.

The best performance in the film is that of British actor Oyelowo who maintains the accent for most of the film and at the end does a good job in imitating southern black dialect. That's his secret and he's got knowledge of another secret and him imparting that to Efron is the high point of the film.

Although all the players give some good performances and in David Oyelowo a great one, the material itself is mundane, mediocre and borders on trashy. Unless you want to see Zac in his tighty whiteys or are fans of others the cast, I'd hesitate before seeing it.