Review of 44 Inch Chest (2009) by Josephine M — 07 Jan 2011

The story of this film is rather basic; Colin's wife has left him for some young stud of a Frenchman which quite naturally upsets him. It's not a classic revenge story in fact there isn't much action at all, most of the story is set in one particular room and the movie relies allot on character development to make the viewer sympathise with Colin even though he slapped his wife round allot when he found out about her getting shafted by the frog.

A film like this that is set mainly in one room and relies on the characters to interest the audience needs a great cast to hold everything together. 44 Inch Chest delivers, we have one hell of an outstanding cast in my opinion, Ray Winston, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson are the ones that stick in my mind the most. It was especially nice not having to see Ray play another back stabbing Englishman like in the latest Indiana Jones but a good guy of sorts who spends most of his time crying over the whole affair.

The movie can get a little confusing and almost annoying at times with Colin often day dreaming and leading the viewer in the wrong direction before returning to reality. I wasn't particularly interested in Colin getting his revenge; I found the most exciting parts were when his friends were sitting about having banter about what they did the night before followed with a flashback of the events described. In the end I wasn't quite sure of the aim of this film other than good prevails of evil with Colin being somewhat kind at the end but neither the less the feature was more than satisfactory in entertainment.