I seem to remember there was something in the marketing of this movie that made me pretty uneasy, and led me to expect something very different to what it ultimately is. They funded it in part from Nick Love fans making donations in exchange for “inside info” and the chance to be an extra. There was something about it that felt very mobbish, leading me to expect a movie that pandered to the kind of people who read the Daily Mail and attack the homes of paediatricians, nevermind paedophiles. That Chris Morris Jam opening comes to mind of the guy pointing at the front page of a tabloid with an expression of disgust at the toerag pictured only to realise, oh dear, he is that toerag.

But I’ve gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised. Though the movie does at times go a little too simple – there’s one moment where my heart sank, as Sean Bean gathers the disparate, downtrodden characters in a gymnasium and addresses them, explaining that they’re not just out for personal revenge, they’re gonna get “ALL the paedophiles, ALL the scum … BLAIR!” and the movie threatens to turn into nothing but a British wanna be Fight Club. It gets past that stage though, and while it’s certainly no Brave One, not to mention my feelings on the misuse of the dreaded P-word (which I won’t get into at this time of year) ... considering my expectations I was fairly shocked by how atypically masculine a movie it turns out to be. The technical stuff’s pretty flawless, too.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 8:09 pm in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews and tagged as British, revenge, vigilante. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.