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| Harry Brown - Movie Premiere Poster Lionsgate UK |
The film's official synopsis:
"Set in modern day Britain, Harry Brown follows one man's journey through a chaotic world where teenage violence runs rampant. As a modest, law abiding citizen, Brown lives alone. His only companion is his best friend Leonard. When Leonard is killed, Brown reaches his breaking point."
Harry Brown is a retired soldier and widower living in an area that was once respectable but has now become a haven for violent crime and ever present drug use. The area is ruled by teenage gang members with zero police presence to alleviate the issue. Not unlike some areas of the UK at the time this film was released in April 2010.
After the constant persecution by teenagers in the area his friend Leonard confronts them and is murdered. Harry decides to take the law into his own hands and seek justice for his friend, and there the story really gets going.
Emily Mortimer plays D.I Alice Frampton and is very good. She plays a detective who suspects Harry Brown of the recent murders in the area but is doubted by her superior and is helpless in the face of such overwhelming violence that the people of the estate have to live under. She comes across as both sympathetic to the plight of people like Harry's friend Leonard but is unable to offer any solutions as she knows the reality is the police are unwilling to deal with the issue of crime in the area. It is all just too hard.
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| Lionsgate UK |
Michael Caine is excellent as Harry Brown. Harry may seem to be nothing more than a pensioner to those he comes into contact with, but you can see just under the surface the man he once was and his capacity and skill for violence that was once his stock in trade.This is a film where you have no doubt who the hero is, where vigilantism seems to be the only way to fix the estates issues.
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| Harry Brown dealing out some justice. Lionsgate UK |
The film really kicks it up a notch when Harry visits a squalid drug den to obtain a gun. It is a great sequence that shows both his morality and his capacity to defend himself and deliver summary justice.
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| Harry Brown taking a stroll through plantation Lionsgate UK |
The riot scene is very well done. It is clearly trying to draw parallels between the scenes and conditions in places that Harry saw combat like Belfast, Northern Ireland and parts of modern Britain like this estate. It does raise some interesting points about the differences between a civil conflict and rioting and how that line may over time blur even further.
Without any spoilers the film also has a small conspiracy in it which although significant in its way is a side plot to the real story.
The soundtrack is well scored and fits the mood of the film throughout.
This film should in my opinion have been more widely recognised as the excellent film it is but sadly I think too many reviewers found the social issues it raised and the neglect by much of main stream society for those living under such conditions just too confronting to properly acknowledge.
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| 4 Stars |
Sean Atherton-Feeney ©
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