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DEAD MAN'S SHOES (2006) **** Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell, Neil Bell, Paul Hurtsfield, George Newton, Seamus O'Neal, Paul Sadot, Andrew Shim, Stuart Wolfenden, Jo Hartley, Emily Aston, Craig Considine, Matt Considine. (Dir: Shane Meadows)

England's answer to "Taxi Driver": compelling vengeance drama with a blistering performance by Considine

Paddy Considine, perhaps best known to American audiences as the Irish immigrant father in "In America" and "Cinderella Man", may be the least likely actor in recent memory to be seen as a lethal force on screen, with his pale white skin, harmless demeanor, and easy smile but in Shane Meadows' brilliantly unnerving vengeance drama Considine reflects his dark side with the intensity of an eclipse.

The simple oft-trod tale of revenge for a right undone - in this case an English ex-soldier's return to his northern country hamlet for some bloody justice for the crimes committed against his slow-minded younger brother by a local drug- dealing hooligan and his cronies, while away on duty - is a cinematic chestnut offering many devices for the filmmaker to employ, namely the flashback narrative (here done in grainy B&W 8mm home-movie style adding to the gritty verisimilitude permeating the pulp noir at hand) and the anti-hero protagonist (Considine giving an implosively blistering performance of furious retribution), Richard, "Anthony's brother" - as he is constantly referred to in trembly depositions by each member of the doomed thugs as if whispering a ghost's name - begins his five day (attributed by the title cards employed) spree of justice.

The brutality and vulgar cruelty - bested upon Anthony (a very good turn by Kebbell making for very empathetic/sympathetic victim needing to be vanquished) whose only crime was not knowing the common sense in seeing just how ugly his new 'friends' could be (again told in a certain amount of restraint in the scratchy black and white sequences, jarring as they are) - indeed are in need for swift retribution and when we first see Richard, a slight, malnourished pasty-white, scratchily bearded, porcupiney scalp of Considine's character we assume he is just one of the unassuming, local blokes of the pub/ pool hall that one of the goons is dealing drugs in. When he is accosted by the dealer he lets out a vitriolic outburst that scorches the skin and chills the spine for the sudden explosive invective that only signals a death-head's warrant of what carnage is about to come. With his bristly beard suggesting a burr patch and his dark brown eyes gone dead-cold with hollow contempt Considine echoes Robert De Niro's walking dead Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver", not so much physically but in demeanor. A husk of a man who served his country only to return to a junk pile residue that was once his home and a desperate need to do some monstrous things in unspeakable ways to those who have unsettled his natural habitat. His Richard, however, has a soul and it aches you to its core when on display in a heartbreaking twist sequence I will not divulge here but it hits you in the solar plexus.

Although I am not familiar with filmmaker Meadows and his previous films (and his collaboration with Considine including this script with a credit to Paul Fraser as well) he has a keen eye for detail and how to set an appropriate tone of absolute dread (nods to ace work done by composer Aphex Twin (AKA Richard James), Danny Cohen's cinematography and the editing team of Celia Haining, Lucas Roche and Chris Wyatt all make for moments of absolute dread and unease); a compliment indeed. While Meadows and Considine - friends in real life as well - smartly show only moments of graphic violence it is with the underlying theme of a good man gone monster is what underscores the visceral ice-numbing moments of fear and smartly not getting into a slasher type of exploitation horror film despite Richard's cheeky decision to wear an unsettling gas-mask suggesting the love child of Darth Vader and The Elephant Man.

A real sleeper indie gem that deserves a wider release and by all means one of the year's best films.

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

I don't want to spoil this movie, I agree with some of the comments in the negative reviews but overall was really digging it for the first 30 minutes. It's not the best movie but it was enjoyable, and the first scene you see him in with the mask is honestly kind of frightening. They do a good job making the revenge seem like a horror, which strikes me as a very real way to approach that, it doesn't feel overly dramatic or anything it feels scary.

Thag being said, there's a scene maybe 30-40 minutes into it, where the bad dudes drive to the guy's house with a damn rifle, mess up the shot and hit their own guy, then drive off cowering in fear and let the person they came to shoot just continue to get away. They also know where he lives and do nothing else about it. This scene immediately killed the entire movie for me, it was the most like, it ruined any tension that was built up and seemed so ridiculously out of place for those characters - why would they cower and run away when they had a gun and the guy was standing there. Idk, I feel terrible knocking the whole movie but that one scene ruined the entire feel of it, it felt like all my cares went out the window.

Having read other reviews, I was moved to write this as several reviews completely "miss the point" of this excellent film: they concentrate on the violence as disturbing and the characters contrived and distasteful.

• As if this all constitutes a "bad" film.

The film is a superb and straightforward morality tale: brutal, stark and nobody wins. The film is simple in narrative, but the message is timeless, and achingly sadly evoked in the final scene.

"Welcome to the real world, some reviewers": there IS violence in the world, exactly like this; it's a fact. The entire film is not comedic violence a la Tarantino; it is about (extreme) vengeance and the universal harm it does.

That one can sympathies to small degree with the protagonist is again real life - most violence is caused by "something", ie is not usually a random act. It is entirely morally wrong, but there just is usually a lead-in, or some excuse/rationalization. And the characters are not contrived - they are alarmingly accurate (having known a couple of UK special forces individuals, they have been trained to do a job; they are the best in the world at it; and if you want a very very hard time, they are the people to get on the wrong side of.)

It is clear at the end that the avenger has known all along that the carnage he has caused means he will have nowhere to go; he wants to die.

The film is superb, and critics of it are merely criticizing a part of the real world they would rather not know about (or a part of themselves/everyone).

I don't quite share in the massively high praise that Dead Man's Shoes has been getting, seemingly across the board. While it is a nice film with some good performances, it's also rather one-note and methodical. The film deals with revenge and it follows the brother of a wronged retard that goes back to the town where his brother was killed in order to get revenge on the men that did it. The story is told in flashbacks, which is then mixed with the brother getting revenge. The themes of revenge and 'the beast in all of us' are well placed and skilfully handled, but the film falls down in it's bid to be a completely successful whole when it comes to the emotion surrounding the situation. It's really difficult to care for any of the characters, and when you've got one of them on a mission to get revenge for being wronged; it doesn't help if you don't really care about him or his situation. It seems that Paddy Considine, actor and writer, thought that the situation itself will get the audience involved on it's own - and it does, somewhat, but not enough for the film to not at least to some extent feel like it's just an excuse for some gritty acting.

Paddy Considine has been compared to the likes of Robert DeNiro, and while I think that's a premature observation; he has shown a willingness to play a range of characters, and you can always count on a dedicated performance from him. This film is rather violent, and this blends well with it's gritty style when it comes to making the film realistic. The way that the various characters meet their doom isn't especially realistic, but it does give Considine a good opportunity to show how mean he can look. Being more used to seeing him in 'nicer' roles, it was good to see him going completely the other way with this film. The atmosphere and tension of the film are right on cue, and you always get the feeling that something bad could happen at any moment. This mostly comes from the fact that bad things do happen through most of the running time. This is where the film falls down; it gets very monotonous quickly, and you pretty much know what's coming before it happens. Sure, the ending holds something of a surprise - but if this had managed to deliver a few more surprises; Dead Man Shoe's praises would be justified.