Jack Irish: Dead Point is a TV Movie in need of some life
Jack Irish doesn’t just have an incredibly banal, writerly name (it could easily be Reginald Fakename), he has a completely bland existence of the sort that feels carbon-copied from any of dozens of mystery novels, films, and television shows. Jack has it all: a dead wife, a dark past, a former legal career that has transformed into work as a private eye, and rugged good looks that suggest he has seen some things he’d rather forget. Jack Irish: Dead Point is the third time Guy Pearce has played the character (he previously appeared in Jack Irish: Bad Debts and Jack Irish: Black Tide, all based on the series of novels by Peter Temple), and he is completely wasted in the role. Irish doesn’t really emote; he mostly walks through the by-the-numbers plotting as if waiting for the end credits to arrive.