| ROCK, HARD : Paul Andrew Williams' 'London To Brighton' [8/10] |
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| Friday, 29 December 2006 | |
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It's very hard to recall a better recent year for British films than 2006: Paul Greengrass's shattering masterpiece United 93 and Alfonso Cuaron's terrific Children of Men were international co-productions with a very significant UK element; Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys and Stephen Frears' The Queen were unambiguously - and marvellously - British affairs; and now in December London To Brighton arrives on our screens to easily justify the rave reviews which greeted its premiere at August's Edinburgh Film Festival. Writer-director Williams won Edinburgh's New Directors Award, and should surely also have picked up the high-profile Michael Powell prize for the festival's best British feature at the festival - an honour which instead somewhat bafflingly went to Fulton & Pepe's engagingly offbeat but decidedly uneven Brothers of the Head. Because London To Brighton isn't merely "promising" or a "calling card" - it's very much the finished article: a socially-conscious, ferociously-topical, unexpectedly moving thriller that works on numerous levels with impressive deftness. The early stretches, however, tread what seems to be rather familiar, not especially promising turf: hard-bitten prostitute Kelly (Lorraine Kelly) and her eleven-year-old charge Joanne (Georgia Groome) must flee London to escape the menacing attentions of the former's thuggish pimp Derek (Johnny Harris). We soon learn than Derek is acting under instruction from sinister rich-kid Stuart (Sam Spruell), whose gangland-bigwig father Duncan (Alexander Morton) was a regular user of Derek's "services." The exact details of the plot, however, are carefully revealed in piecemeal fashion via the script's flashback-heavy structure - and only come into proper focus during the harrowing, bloodspattered final act. By this stage our interest has been fully engaged by the surprisingly three-dimensional characterisations afforded not only to Kelly and Joanne, whose dire predicament naturally inspires our rooting-interest, but also to the rather more offputting figure of Derek - the latter emerging as a rather more vulnerable character than his first appearances might suggest. Indeed, the bloke spends the majority of the film hobbling around in rather pitiful fashion after receiving a nasty leg wound - but it wouldn't be accurate to say that Derek is ever presented in what you might call a sympathetic light. In fact, our attitude towards this particular character is a vital element of what gives the climactic scene such strength, complexity and resonance. Full credit to Williams the writer, of course, but mention must be made of the way he so sensibly builds his film around the three excellent, very different central performances. London To Brighton deals with difficult, disturbing subject-matter, but does so with great sensitivity and tact, shining a light on a section of society, and a strain of human behaviour, which we often prefer to ignore but which, as recent terrible events in Ipswich so sadly serve to remind us, demand society's attention - and action. Neil Young 29th December, 2006 LONDON TO BRIGHTON : [8/10] : UK 2006 : Paul Andrew WILLIAMS : 86 mins (BBFC timing) seen at Empire cinema, Sunderland (UK), 20th December 2006 - public show (paid £4.50 : student discount!) |
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