“Papillon,” a remake of the 1973 film about Devil’s Island inmate Henri “Papillon” Charrière, could be described as a prison drama, but it’s probably just as accurate to call the new movie a mystery.

The remake of Papillon ends with archival footage of convicts entering the penal colony in French Guiana – as though an audience might need proof such a place existed. That abusive penitentiary system ...