Review of Brighton Rock (2010) by Nick D — 26 Aug 2011

Couldn't get past the bad casting of Riley as Pinkie Brown. Wrong wrong wrong. He stares too much in an attempt to impersonate a sociopath. I liked the update from the 30s to the 60s: some really great shots of the mods & rockers on bikes and good action scenes that interpose their rumble with the knife fights between the central characters.

And I loved the milieux of the petty thieves and the big-time gangsters (shades of Boardwalk Empire). Indeed, the whole film LOOKS wonderful. Mirren is flawless, who doesn't love her, but she's badly used for the film's sake.

She's actually quite restrained, but evidently the filmmakers thought it was clever to give her more screen time, being that she's such a big star, only to veer the plot off kilter. Her final scene in the hotel made no sense, and undercut whatever motivation she had.

I saw the original flick last year at the Film Forum with Attenborough, and wow, he was on fire, like a Cagney maniac. I am now going to re-read the Greene novel.