THE PLOT
Colin Farrell is Mitchell, a newly released Pentonville con who falls for Keira Knightley’s reclusive cinema starlet, Charlotte (say that fast 3 times!). Mitchell is determined never to end up back behind bars and resists the encouragement of friends and foes to get back in to the old life.
THE REVIEW
You could easily consider this to be just another attempt at a gritty London gangster flick. And you wouldn’t be far off the mark as there is little groundbreaking here. Ray Winstone is Gant, reprising what is seemingly his ‘usual role’ of local crime boss and hard man. Together with his sideshow goons, this is gangster-by-numbers stuff. Even Mitchell’s moronic chum Billy (Ben Chaplin) is the type of wide-boy geezer you hope gets knocked off early just for being a twat. So far, not a resounding endorsement!
David Thewlis’ Jordan, an at times addled benefactor-cum-guardian to Charlotte, is perfectly played and carries some of the best lines of the script. ‘I was on a kids' show; then I was on methadone…’ captures the humour in this character well, however this doesn’t carry throughout the rest of the script and perhaps it is here the film loses something. Charlotte, Jordan and Mitchell are fuller, better developed characters, but the remaining roles are left to the realms of comic book dialogue, and even this trio aren’t enough to save this film from enjoyable mediocrity.
Farrell is the lynchpin of this film, portraying a character, and turning out a performance, reminiscent of his 2008 role as Ray in the superb In Bruges. But I suspect this good performance is down to Farrell rather than the script, and that is a surprising disappointment considering that Oscar winner William Monahan (The Departed) is the man behind it. Perhaps Monahan has taken on too much as both writer and first time director that forms the main reason behind delivering this relatively lacklustre flick. Were it not for Farrell’s troubled lead and good support from Knightley and Thewlis, this film would have had me wanting a refund, but instead left me ‘almost’ happily entertained.
This film could have benefited from more of the Charlotte and Mitchell storyline and less on the London underbelly, but then that might fly too close to The Bodyguard (1992) script and that wouldn’t be good for anyone! On the up side, the cool 60’s soundtrack would at least raise it above its saccharine sweet Whitney Houston counterpart.
THE VERDICT
Colin Farrell leads well but is let down by an average script and archetypal characterisations. Entertaining, but nothing special or new.
TC
NOW SEE THE TRAILER...
UK Release Date: 26 November 2010
THE REVIEW
You could easily consider this to be just another attempt at a gritty London gangster flick. And you wouldn’t be far off the mark as there is little groundbreaking here. Ray Winstone is Gant, reprising what is seemingly his ‘usual role’ of local crime boss and hard man. Together with his sideshow goons, this is gangster-by-numbers stuff. Even Mitchell’s moronic chum Billy (Ben Chaplin) is the type of wide-boy geezer you hope gets knocked off early just for being a twat. So far, not a resounding endorsement!
David Thewlis’ Jordan, an at times addled benefactor-cum-guardian to Charlotte, is perfectly played and carries some of the best lines of the script. ‘I was on a kids' show; then I was on methadone…’ captures the humour in this character well, however this doesn’t carry throughout the rest of the script and perhaps it is here the film loses something. Charlotte, Jordan and Mitchell are fuller, better developed characters, but the remaining roles are left to the realms of comic book dialogue, and even this trio aren’t enough to save this film from enjoyable mediocrity.
Farrell is the lynchpin of this film, portraying a character, and turning out a performance, reminiscent of his 2008 role as Ray in the superb In Bruges. But I suspect this good performance is down to Farrell rather than the script, and that is a surprising disappointment considering that Oscar winner William Monahan (The Departed) is the man behind it. Perhaps Monahan has taken on too much as both writer and first time director that forms the main reason behind delivering this relatively lacklustre flick. Were it not for Farrell’s troubled lead and good support from Knightley and Thewlis, this film would have had me wanting a refund, but instead left me ‘almost’ happily entertained.
This film could have benefited from more of the Charlotte and Mitchell storyline and less on the London underbelly, but then that might fly too close to The Bodyguard (1992) script and that wouldn’t be good for anyone! On the up side, the cool 60’s soundtrack would at least raise it above its saccharine sweet Whitney Houston counterpart.
THE VERDICT
Colin Farrell leads well but is let down by an average script and archetypal characterisations. Entertaining, but nothing special or new.
TC
NOW SEE THE TRAILER...
UK Release Date: 26 November 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment