Entertainment

Health-care drama needs a shot in the arm

Chris Evans, terminally bland as “Captain America,” shows his mettle in “Puncture,” playing a drugged-out lawyer crusading on behalf of health-care workers in an entertaining true story from first-time filmmakers Adam and Mark Kassen.

When a nurse (Vinessa Shaw) develops AIDS from an accidental needle prick in the ’90s, her inventor friend, Jeffrey Dancort (Marshall Bell), develops a non-reusable needle with a retractable point to prevent such mishaps.

Health-care workers — worried about hepatitis C as well — are eager to use the new syringes, but Dancort runs into a wall of resistance from suppliers and buyers who refuse to spend a pittance more for safety.

Large law firms aren’t interested in taking Dancort’s case against a needle manufacturer that’s locked him out of business. So he turns to a Houston firm run by ambulance-chasers Paul Danziger (co-director Mark Kassen) and Mike Weiss (Evans).

Danziger is skeptical about making any money from the case, but he’s swayed by Weiss, his partner and lifelong friend, who is passionate about taking up the cause. The complication is that Weiss is a high-functioning drug addict who snorts cocaine, which, at least when we first see him, gives Weiss an edge in court.

As the case progresses in fits and starts, Weiss’ drug use catches up with him — his personal life falls apart and he becomes progressively less reliable as a lawyer. A Texas senator (Kate Burton) he tries to enlist as an ally immediately sizes him up as a user and a potential liability to the crusade.

His opponent’s smooth lawyer (Brett Cullen) eventually offers to buy his client’s invention for a generous sum — so the safety needles will never come to market.

While the Kassen brothers do an impressive job for newcomers — the film looks great and performances are uniformly solid — there’s some overly blunt dialogue and dead-end subplots that would have been pruned by more experienced filmmakers.

“Puncture” presents a compelling story, but it’s also difficult to sympathize with Evans’ doomed main character, no matter how vividly he’s acted.