Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

We kind of accept the desperation that life in the outskirts numbs by stark necessity, that people prostitute themselves or run shady rings of all sorts from a shabby apartment and that this happens not far from us at all. But when a 12 year old girl becomes involved, does that wake us?The film isn't amazing but not bad to watch either. In fact the main thing against it for me is, like the prostitute protagonist who eventually returns to the life she knows of walking the streets, an inability to envision something more than the morality play. So yes, there are corrupt animals out there, both filthy rich and lowly thugs, who get what's coming to them, others get a clean pass, the right decision is made. Okay. It's the kind of thing that affirms a broken state of things, affects in a small way, provides the catharsis, so we can go back to what we were doing.

The movie starts in a bathroom with Kelly (Lorraine Stanley) bruised and battered, while young Joanne (Georgia Groome) is cowering. They scrap together enough money for a train trip from London to Brighton. They're on the run from some dangerous gangsters led by Stuart Allen (Sam Spruell). The movie flashbacks to the beginning when prostitute Kelly befriends 12 year old runaway Joanne. Kelly's pimp Derek (Johnny Harris) tries to turn her.This is a gritty little indie from newcomer writer/director Paul Andrew Williams. The performance are all solid. The two leads are amazing. The movie does the bottom dwelling grim pretty well. There are some slower spots in the movie. But the great performances and the harrowing story are building to a really good dark ending. A minor complaint is that it doesn't go through with it. Instead it has a happy ending which is probably more sellable.

That this was the Guardian's "British Film of the Year" for 2006, probably tell's us more about the state of the British film industry than it does about the quality of this film. It is a decent product in many respects, great performances from Johnny Harris (Derek), Georgia Groome (Joanne) and Lorraine Stanley (Kelly), effectual editing, decent camera-work, lighting and sound. Sadly, none of this can redeem a rather nasty "urban" story filled with tawdry stereotypes and sham 'gangland' moralistic overtones. The pacing of London to Brighton is however, quite excellent, and looking at the out-takes, proved to be the film's salvation. The story is predictable, but for me generated more than enough interest to keep watching right through till the end.That Johnny Harris went on to appear in Atonement is somewhat ironic given the brutal reparation forced upon him here.

In 2001, Dr. Richard Estes and Dr. Neil Alan Weiner estimated that there are one million child prostitutes in the world and the average age of entry into prostitution is between 11 and 13. This disturbing subject has been largely ignored by the movies, with the exception of Lilya-4-Ever and Paul Williams' London to Brighton. Containing stellar performances by Lorraine Stanley as Kelly, a street-smart prostitute, and Georgia Groome as Joanne, an 11-year-old runaway, London to Brighton is a low budget but gritty, uncompromising thriller that dramatizes the lives of two young prostitutes, the predators who prey on them, and the criminal underworld of British society.Though it is sometimes hard to watch because of the graphic violence, the film conveys a sense of humanity that shines through the despair. As London to Brighton begins, two hysterical young girls hide in a public toilet in London's Victoria Station in the middle of the night The younger girl, possibly only 11 or 12, her face smeared with lipstick and bruises, cries copious tears while the older, chubbier girl tries to comfort her though her own face is a mass of welts and black and blue marks. Both girls are hiding from their pimp Derek (Johnny Harris) and his client Stuart Allen (Sam Spruell) after a botched job in which the client's father, Duncan Allen (Alexander Morton) died in the client's apartment.It began when Kelly, on orders from Derek, went scouting for an underage girl to match the needs of his wealthy client. Now on the run, Kelly leaves Joanne in the rest room while she does some "work" to obtain money to visit a safe house in Brighton. The film unfolds in a non-linear fashion and we gradually learn the sordid details in flashbacks. As the girls head to Brighton to take cover, Derek and his cohort Chum (Nathan Constance), forced to take action against the girls before they have to pay the price themselves, are determined to track them down.Recently released on a subtitled DVD that includes a commentary by the director and others, an alternate ending, and eight deleted scenes, London to Brighton packs a wallop. Energy and tension adorn the film from start to finish, a span of only 85 minutes. Though some of the scenes indicate a sense of lost hope, in the courage and loving protectiveness of Kelly and the childlike innocence of Joanne, there is also a sense of possibility. Winner of the Best New Director Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival with a style reminiscent of the raw immediacy of Shane Meadows and the social awareness of Ken Loach, Paul Williams in London to Brighton has delivered an outstanding first feature.