not as good as all the hype

Amateur movie with Big budget

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

After the suicide of small time drug dealer Davey, his brother and former gangster Will Graham, who is living a peaceful recluse life trying to redeem himself from his past, returns to his homeland to investigate the motives for such a desperate act. Will hires an independent autopsy and the coroner informs that Davey had been raped the night before his death. Will returns to his past life seeking for revenge.....Hodges goes back to his most loved movie for this movie, which is basically Get Carter for the art house crowds, and if your looking for something with full on action and thrills, look somewhere else, because this is a slow burner right up until the last minute.The films message is simple, it's the old dealing with the new, and how people don't like change, even though that change is inevitable. Macdowells monologue toward the end sums up a lot of people's thoughts about the state of youth today, and the disgraceful act committed is just a metaphor for how a lot of people feel about modern life today.Owen is wonderful as the distraught brother, and he can do both distress to loss and misunderstanding distress beautifully. It's the quiet moments we have with him in the film that give the movie it's effectiveness, the pain in his face due to narrative revelations are amazing, it's a shame he never really hit it big like Law.It's a dark bleak movie, not recommended if your of a low mood.But Owen is wonderful.

The screenplay for this intertwined, revelation-by-revelation unraveling thriller is quite excellent. Davey Graham, the first major character we meet, is, on the one hand, charming, and on the other, a drug dealer and petty thief. His brother, Will Graham, who we meet as the film progresses, in a crime situation in which he is not directly involved and in which he acts as a sort of hero, was, at one time, a serious criminal known for his toughness and killings. He is lamenting his past life, and lives in a camper in a rural area far from the demanding city. Will has closed his heart to the professional and personal emotions associated with his past life. We learn that at first he continued to be in touch with the woman he loved, but then stopped writing her. He was also very close to his brother. For a time, he maintained their relationship by telephoning, but more recently has neglected any type of communication.Davey and Will, as portrayed by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Clive Owen, are likable characters, but because they are criminal types an emotional attachment to them - on the part of the viewer - is guarded. This serves as a foundation for the more lurid aspects of the story which might have been distasteful or emotionally overwhelming had they been more innocent types.Davey, who is heterosexual, is totally unaware of his nemesis, and is fiercely raped by him while two men hold him down. He finds the attack so impossible to deal with that he commits suicide. It is difficult to understand the feelings associated with rape and how they could cause the suicide of someone who would not normally consider such an act. Rape is a tragic matter, infrequently examined in films. This screenplay effectively deciphers the issue through explanation of the character's lives.After the rape and suicide, Will, who knows nothing about them, has a spiritual experience and believes that he sees Davey in the waiting area of a boat crossing terminal, a totally unlikely location. This leads to the core of the film: Will's investigation and ultimate resolution of Davey's rape by killing the rapist, and Will having to deal with his past and the complex emotions associated with it.The sometimes slow pace of the film adds to the overall mood of characters being dragged down into situations they really do not want. The violence, which they both endure and cause, is, accordingly, an injustice and a result of their lives. In the end, Will finds that blocking out emotions only results in the dam overflowing.The direction and performances, overall, are very good.

I had expected better things of Trevor Preston and Mike Hodges and perhaps give them the benefit of the doubt that their original vision was manipulated by the money men. But even so this really is a dreary load of clichéd cods wallop with the plot stolen from Get Carter. The wheels kept coming off the waggon as I watched, but the final one to make the film crash to floor in clichés was when he opened the garage and there was a 1960s Jaguar sitting there. It might have made a half decent 50 minute Sweeney episode in the 1970s but as a movie its a complete waste of money. The British film elite are always complaining about lack of money, well if they stopped giving it to the same old lethargic luvvies to make the same old junk all the time, they might end up with a proper 'industry' in which digestible movies are churned out week after week?.

This would have been a great mystery film if it weren't a revenge film. There's a lot of great atmosphere, tension, and rhythm to the first half of the film, which increases but never really boils over. What connects these characters is power, wanting to be rid of it, loathing it, courting it, defending it trying to manufacture it, and in the end everyone seems only sinking deeper into troubles. It's definitely entertaining to watch and much more well paced and developed than your average gangster film, the problem is this movie feels like it's getting ready to explode or at least have a sequel, and it doesn't capitalize on it's tension. Some good editing, music, performances, and atmosphere, but if your not careful the story can slick it's way by without leaving an impact.