Clayface, the latest addition to the DCU, is a true mixed bag, much like the origin stories and biographies of the character himself from his several iterations. He is not a supervillain in this narrative, nor is he a true antihero. His motivations are not altruistic but entirely personal. Does this make him a sympathetic character? I don’t think so. In fact, I didn’t think any of the characters were sympathetic. Many were downright evil, but those who seemed to be friends and/or supporters were also quite flawed. The one thing I can say for certain is the ick factor is very strong in this film!
Imagine, if you will, an entire theater full of people going “Eeeeew!” at the same time. The visuals in Clayface are not for the squeamish. In fact, several phobias might be triggered: Fear of needles, blood, flying, and unqualified doctors to name a few.
Tom Rhys Harries has the thankless job of playing movie star Matt Hagen, because he must have spent hours in the makeup chair having innumerable prosthetics applied every day. He doesn’t get to spend much time with his actual face. He has to carry this film, but he’s hampered by a cliché-ridden script and some inconsistent transitions. I’ve seen him do better work in other productions. He doesn’t make Matt a guy you can really root for. Although he’s supposed to have risen to stardom from being raised in Gotham’s worst neighborhood where he was a tough street kid, he surprisingly naïve about bad guys and is quite gullible.
Matt dances with the wrong girl while celebrating an Academy Award nomination at a club and invokes the ire of mob boss Markas Szebo (David Dencik) who’s a doozy of a bad guy. Szebo is the owner of the club and boyfriend to the girl, Mia (Jana Ribeiro). Szebo exacts revenge by sending in his goons to injure him sufficiently and then himself disfigures Matt’s face in a most gruesome way.
After 5 unsuccessful plastic surgeries, and being ripped off by his business manager and dropped by his agent, he’s left penniless and in despair. He’s forced to return to Gotham and the shabby apartment he once shared with his late mother. When he goes out, he is brutally stared at and bullied. He sees a doctor interviewed on TV who has invented a way to restore normalcy to disfigured children but had her formula stolen by a cosmetics company. He senses in her a fellow sufferer who’s been betrayed by people she trusted and decides to find her.
Naomi Ackie plays Dr. Caitlyn Corr. She is sympathetic to Matt’s problems but tells him her method is not approved for human testing yet. He finally convinces her to test it on him, and he doesn’t care about the risks. When she finally treats him, she does so without gloves or mask which bothered me as it’s an invasive injection – far from a normal one. The serum is made up of tiny nano-bots that communicate with one another via artificial intelligence and act/problem solve independently. What could possibly go wrong, right? The consequences of the treatment along with a bad decision by Matt drive the rest of the narrative. I will leave that for you to enjoy (?) because anything else I’d write would surely include spoilers.
There is a love triangle of sorts involving Matt, Caitlyn, and her boyfriend John (Max Minghella). John becomes jealous of Matt almost immediately and suspicious of his motives, not surprising since Caitlyn begins spending all her time either treating or monitoring Matt. That’s a little surprising as the chemistry between them is tepid at best. That said, John’s suspicions are valid.
Outcomes vary from expected to unexpected in some cases. I personally did not find the ending satisfying and thought that overall, it could have been so much better. – JoAnne Hyde