The Tax Collector Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs
2. Bobby Soto's Solid Lead Performance
Though Shia LaBeouf has been marketed as the movie's lead, it's actually Bobby Soto, who acquits himself admirably in his biggest role to date as protagonist David.
You have to feel for Soto, whose performance here should've been a major career-booster on paper, and yet forces him to try and shape David into an anti-hero actually worth remembering.
Though the actor ultimately fails in that regard - and all but Daniel Day-Lewis himself probably would - his calmer, cooler demeanour serves as a welcome counter-point to LaBeouf's twitchier, more intense mood, and Soto clearly does his level-best with the words on offer.
When Soto is asked to go to some more anguished placed in the movie's third act, he comes up with the goods, no matter that his fine work is too often lost in a sea of boilerplate storytelling.