Atlas Shrugged: Part II

The second part of a multi-film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s epic novel finds beleaguered railroad executive Dagny Taggart (Samantha Mathis) coping with the disappearances of several talented colleagues, increasingly pressure from government bureaucrats, the machinations of her incompetent brother James (Patrick Fabian), and a forbidden attraction to maverick industrialist Hank Rearden (Jason Beghe). As she struggles to keep her company afloat, she is plagued by the hypothetical question on the tip of everyone’s tongue: Who is John Galt?

Financed and produced by fitness magnate John Aglialoro, 2011’s Atlas Shrugged Part I was an ambitious effort that featured a no-name cast, some  breathtaking scenery, and a yawnworthy script. To say that it didn’t work is an understatement: it was both a box office flop and a critical failure. For the second installment, Aglialoro went with a new director (John Putch) and a completely new cast. Though a more polished effort in several regards, Atlas Shrugged: Part II is no less disappointing.

The biggest problem here, as in the preceding film, is the script. Rand’s novel is long, bloated, and talky, but a skilled screenwriter could have distilled its essence and given us something that would hold our attention. Whether acting out of fidelity to the source material or sheer inefficacy, Brian Patrick O’Toole has twice fallen short. There is a little more movement and a little less excruciating banter this time around, but the pacing is still better suited for a TV miniseries than for a feature film. The lack of resolution and the gradual gear-grinding of the plot make for frustrated viewing.

This lack of enjoyment is often abetted by a less than stellar cast. Part I went with up-and-comers and bit players; Part II gives us some better-known has-beens on the downsides of their careers. In all fairness, Rand’s characters are deliberately one-dimensional, moreso representations of ideas than actual people, but whereas the leads in the previous film (Taylor Schilling and Grant Bowler) gave it their all, Mathis and Beghe appear to be going through the motions. They nail the demeanor (Dagny comes across cool, collected, and headstrong; Rearden is a gruff, plain-spoken loner), but there is also a flat, tired quality to the acting. 

A few of the supporting roles fare better. As Dagny’s childhood friend Francisco D’Aconia, Esai Morales steals nearly every scene he’s in. He plays the character with a healthy dash of Bruce Wayne: a brilliant tactician who masquerades as an idle rich playboy. Fabian is also appropriately repulsive as James, lending some superficial charm to the quintessential empty suit. He is outdone, however, by Kim Rhodes, who transforms Lillian Rearden from merely being Hank’s nagging, unappreciative wife to a cold, ruthless, insanely jealous vamp.

Behind the camera, Putch’s work is wholly unimpressive. Whereas Part I entreated us to rich aerial views of trains winding their way through the mountains, Part II revels in deliberate ugliness. A sequence involving a train crash in a dark tunnel pulls away when it should be slowing down to heighten the tension, and nothing here can match the impact of the Wyatt’s Torch sequence that closed out the previous installment.

Atlas Shrugged still contains the essence of a story worth telling, but the first two stabs at it have been undermined by poor execution. This leaves little hope that Part III – when and if it materializes – will be any better.

6.25/10