Very often a film is only as good as its villains . In that case Shane Meadows has made very much a good film . A former soldier Richard returns to his home town to extract revenge on the gang who abused his younger brother Anthony and what an evil gang of subhuman pond life they are , drug dealers , sadists and sexual perverts and the depressing thing is that all large towns and cities in Britain have them in reality whilst avenging angels such as Richard only seem to belong in films . I promise you that you'll be having nightmares about what Anthony has to endure at the hands of the gang in general and the fists of gang leader Sonny in particular
The cast are excellent and you're left with the impression much of its naturalistic ad libbing beloved by realist film makers . What makes this even more commendable is how inexperienced much of the cast is . This is the film that put Paddy Considine on the acting map and no matter what else Meadows does he deserves some thanks for finding Considine who seems born to play the role violent anti hero Richard . But surpassing Considine are the performances of Stuart Wolfenden as Herbie the slimy drug dealing cowardly thug and Gary Stretch as Sonny who is quite simply one of the most cruel , perverted sadists to have appeared in British cinema . The scene where he offers Anthony a choice between two parts of his anatomy is highly distressing and I wouldn't blame anyone if they walked out of the cinema / turned off the TV at this point
Where Shane Meadows is less successful is that he seemingly can't make up his mind if he's making a gritty realist revenge thriller or if he's trying to become Britain's answer to Lars Von Trier . BREAKING THE WAVES by Von Trier was directed in a realist style even though it's far from being a realist film . Meadows emulates this and while the twist involving Anthony may explain plot holes such as Richard knowing where everyone lives it does come across as being somewhat silly and not nearly as clever as THE SIXTH SENSE twist ending . There's also a number of implausible plot holes such as the gang going to kill Richard but deciding to only take one bullet with them or a scene where Richard getting in to a flat when the only access is via a communal stairwell which has three of the gang standing outside
I did think THIS IS ENGLAND suffered from being a feel good movie that mutates in to a hard edged and sometimes violent drama and like that film DEAD MANS SHOES fails to reach much of its potential due to Meadows switching back and forward from a realist style to a formalist one . It is certainly bleak , depressing , nihilistic and memorable but just falls short of greatness due to it being a little too off centre and bizarre
As a footnote it's interesting that Richard wears the M1965 combat jacket which is of the same type Travis Bickle wears in TAXI DRIVER and John Eastland wears in THE EXTERMINATOR . It's obviously the uniform of the violent avenger
The cast are excellent and you're left with the impression much of its naturalistic ad libbing beloved by realist film makers . What makes this even more commendable is how inexperienced much of the cast is . This is the film that put Paddy Considine on the acting map and no matter what else Meadows does he deserves some thanks for finding Considine who seems born to play the role violent anti hero Richard . But surpassing Considine are the performances of Stuart Wolfenden as Herbie the slimy drug dealing cowardly thug and Gary Stretch as Sonny who is quite simply one of the most cruel , perverted sadists to have appeared in British cinema . The scene where he offers Anthony a choice between two parts of his anatomy is highly distressing and I wouldn't blame anyone if they walked out of the cinema / turned off the TV at this point
Where Shane Meadows is less successful is that he seemingly can't make up his mind if he's making a gritty realist revenge thriller or if he's trying to become Britain's answer to Lars Von Trier . BREAKING THE WAVES by Von Trier was directed in a realist style even though it's far from being a realist film . Meadows emulates this and while the twist involving Anthony may explain plot holes such as Richard knowing where everyone lives it does come across as being somewhat silly and not nearly as clever as THE SIXTH SENSE twist ending . There's also a number of implausible plot holes such as the gang going to kill Richard but deciding to only take one bullet with them or a scene where Richard getting in to a flat when the only access is via a communal stairwell which has three of the gang standing outside
I did think THIS IS ENGLAND suffered from being a feel good movie that mutates in to a hard edged and sometimes violent drama and like that film DEAD MANS SHOES fails to reach much of its potential due to Meadows switching back and forward from a realist style to a formalist one . It is certainly bleak , depressing , nihilistic and memorable but just falls short of greatness due to it being a little too off centre and bizarre
As a footnote it's interesting that Richard wears the M1965 combat jacket which is of the same type Travis Bickle wears in TAXI DRIVER and John Eastland wears in THE EXTERMINATOR . It's obviously the uniform of the violent avenger