Film Review: Harry Brown

Harry Brown. 103 mins. Rated MA15+. Directed by Daniel Barber. Written by Gary Young.

‘The Vigilante’ archetype has been an enigmatic and hugely successful character in film – exemplified by no-one more successfully than Clint Eastwood’s career-defining ‘Dirty Harry’. When the defenceless and hard-done-by need rescuing from their perilous situation, there can be something undeniably exhilarating about the man with the serious weaponry arriving on the scene to ensure justice – or at least the cinema’s often altruistic version of it – is done.

Harry Brown (Michael Caine) is an elderly man dealing with overwhelming grief. His beloved wife is lying comatose in hospital and the poverty-stricken housing estate in which they live is ruled by a gang of drug-dealing thugs, who terrorise the community with murders, bashings and random acts of extreme violence and intimidation. When Harry's best friend Leonard (David Bradley) is murdered in the pedestrian underpass that he, himself, is too scared to use, Harry decides to takes matters into his own hands by holding each gang member personally accountable for Leonard’s violent and senseless death.

Not since Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996) has there been such an astonishing emergence of a potent new voice in British cinema. Barber (in his feature film debut) has delivered a supremely confident, angry and impatient vision of a community in extreme danger of self-annihilation. Young’s screenplay is vicious in both its near-flawless structural simplicity and the manner in which it divides the ‘good’ from the ‘evil’ with razor sharp authority.

Michael Caine – at the peak of his powers – gives one of the greatest performances of his career. His every move – from the subtly endearing, grieving old man going about the details of his daily ritual to his transformation into the ex-Marine taking revenge with military flair and precision – is unerringly brilliant. Emily Mortimer (Shutter Island) is superb as Detective Inspector Alice Frampton, and the supporting cast attack their roles (and each other) with passion, skill and undeniable ferocity.

The film’s extraordinary visual style, superbly photographed in painstaking detail by cinematographer Martin Ruhe (The Countess), sets the action in the heart of a pre-apocalyptic environment – magnificently realised by art director Chris Lowe (The Golden Compass, The Constant Gardener) and production designer Kave Quinn (Trainspotting).

Harry Brown’s vision is a bleak one – owing more to Shakespeare’s tragedies than it does to The Bill. The violence and mayhem, which many may find extremely confronting, is savagely realistic. But for those who have experienced violence and assault or have feared for their safety and their lives, this is a film that unapologetically demands we consider the very essence of social order and justice.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Midwest Times.

Film review: Shutter Island

Shutter Island. 138 minutes. Rated MA15+. Directed by Martin Scorsese; Written by Laeta Kalogridis; Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane.

Psychological thrillers (exemplified by masters of the genre such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick) don’t come much better than this screen-scorching mind-bender from Mr Scorsese.

It is 1954, and US Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a remote maximum-security prison hospital for the criminally insane. As a devastating hurricane closes in on the island, communication with the mainland is severed and the young investigators find themselves at the mercy, not only of nature's full fury, but also the sinister and singularly uncooperative hospital staff.

Mr Scorsese’s fierce, passionate and wildly-involving film could only ever have been possible when the talent involved is at the very top of their game. Robert Richardson’s (The Aviator) cinematography is positively searing, Sandy Powell’s (The Departed, The Aviator) 1950s costuming is beautifully realised, and Dante Ferretti’s (The Aviator, Gangs of New York) production design is flawless. But the virtuosity of the film’s final sequence (and the all-important pay-off where psychological thrillers are concerned), would not have been possible without the editing skills of Thelma Schoonmaker, who has edited every one of the director’s films since 1980’s Raging Bull.

With a performance of astonishing emotional depth and intellectual muscle, Mr DiCaprio proves, once and for all, that he is one of the most extraordinary actors of his generation. And he is in spectacular company. Mr Ruffalo’s is a career-defining performance of incredible range, while veterans Ben Kingsley (Ghandi) and Max von Sydow (the Exorcist in The Exorcist) are simply superb. Michelle Williams (unforgettable opposite Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain), here, again, uses every one of her chameleon qualities to devastating effect, while Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson excel in their cameos as one of the patients.

And while it’s only February, Shutter Island could well be the most exciting and rewarding couple of hours we’ll spend in the cinema this year.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Geraldton Guardian.