User Reviews

I love British Gangster movies, even sub genre of crime films like Villain which has its flaws, but i was very disappointed in April, amateur story telling and worse performances. Darren James King the writer/director also plays Tommy, who apparently is a nasty piece of work and recruiter of young boys, but I was never clear on his relationship to Neal Ward who plays Myles, are they friends, colleagues or stuck together, in a scene halfway through Tommy talks about recruiting little boys whilst they are sitting in a car and Myles clearly looks like he disapproves only to later recruit a boy and send him to Tommy.

Even when stories are gritty and dark, there are elements of enjoyment or understanding characters have in their lives, but not in this film and its not made clear why these men are doing what they do. Do they enjoy exploiting young boys and girls? Or are they themselves being forced to groom these young people. Myles is not a complex character, his father was horrible as played by David Streames, who was so over the top with his performance that he should have been a pantomime villain, but even these scenes do not explain Myles actions or motivations in this grooming storyline. Myles wife wants nothing to do with him, and he comes across like he might be regretting the life choices he's made, then flip flops back to scenes where he clearly is reveling in his actions and enjoying grooming young girls, like a scene when he is confronted by April's father.

This is clearly a low budget affair and there are issues with the Photography and Sound, but they could be forgiven if the director managed get a grasp on an interesting and coherent story. It left me feeling bored after the opening scene where Tommy is horrible to a prostitute whilst sitting in a car for no real reason, with a disapproving Myles who takes no action nor condemns Tommy, then later does something similar to a girl. The plot is nonsensical, victims are selected by some geezer in a hoodie with a note, how do they choose their victims and what are they chosen to do, drug dealers or prostitutes maybe sold off to foreign buyers as slave labour. The criteria for 'being chosen' is never clear and Myles participation is also vague, does he owe the note bearing hoodie money, does he just like doing it, what would happen if he stopped or walked away. In the end he has a crises of confidence after starting April down her new path, then tries to save her, which includes a shoot out with the chief bad guy, who delivers his lines like he's being paid by the hour, in a scene that Myles initiated, for no other reason that to end the movie with a shoot out? Killing them both I guess when you are a bad guy and turn good you have to pay the price.

I would not recommend this British film, it's also an insight to parents and young people to look out for geezers in hoodies with written notes, you might be 'chosen'.