Men without work feature in the occasionally engrossing yet mostly unfulfilling The Nothing Men.  

Movies about men are a special breed. From 12 Angry Men, to Glengarry Glen Ross, to Fight Club, the male psyche has been prodded, examined, and laid bare to varying degrees of success.

Now into the fold comes The Nothing Men, a new Australian release that taps into the philosophy that a man without work is not a man.

It is an approach that is intriguing in theory, yet not wholly satisfying in execution, for much like Marlon Brando once said, The Nothing Men “could have been a contender” if it were not so immersed in lame plot twists and shocking its audience with brutish violence akin to a torture porn movie.

Tis a shame for it begins promisingly on a group of ball breaking factory workers. Recently made redundant they sit anxiously in an empty factory, spending the days away drinking, gambling, and oogling over nudie magazines, exactly the type of behaviour that will cost them their hefty payouts if caught.   

When David (David Field), a worker from another district is transferred to their inner sanctum, paranoia immediately rears its ugly head. Who is he? Where does he come from? Where does he go during his lunch break?

The combination of secrecy, denial, and paranoia makes for a tense atmosphere which writer/director Mark Fitzpatrick orchestrates beautifully, and for the most part the ensemble cast take to their roles and Fitzpatrick’s snappy dialogue.

This is especially true of lead actors David Field and Colin Friels, who plays leader to this crew of nothing men. Two of Australia’s finest character actors, Field and Friels portray forces in constant opposition as cool mannered Catholic and firebrand atheist respectively, pushing one another to the limits of decency and humanity.

So too does Fitzpatrick reach his limit as a storyteller, opting for generic plot devices and shock twists as his film unravels into a mess of silly consequence, sadistic violence and empty symbolism.

It was almost dispiriting to watch a film with so much promise implode in the way that it did, relying on the lesser talents of Martin Dingle-Wall to see it through, while revelling in unrealistic scenarios of barbaric cruelty.  

In the end The Nothing Men proves to be an ambitious first step for Fitzpatrick, but a fumbling one that will leave viewers feeling empty at its conclusion.