Review of Brighton Rock (2010) by Dave J — 23 Feb 2011

It was a pretty brave move to remake such an iconic British film as the 1947 'Brighton Rock', but an excellent ensemble cast does full justice to Graham Greene's icy tale. The decision to move the story to the early 1960s is inspired: the random violence of the fights between massed gangs of Mods and Rockers make a fitting backdrop to the vicious struggle for control of the coastal town's criminal underworld, the chaos caused by the former conflict sometimes helping to hide the latter one from public view.

There are superb performances a-plenty from a cast including some of the very best contemporary British talent. Sam Riley is chillingly brilliant as the psychopathic Pinkie Brown, infusing his thoroughly evil character with easily enough bad-boy charisma and twisted charm to make his seduction of naive waitress Rose (Andrea Riseborough) believable.

Riseborough has the hardest character arc to follow, an eager journey from pale light into the heart of darkness, but she takes us with her on her thrilling ride downhill. Helen Mirren is similarly intense and convincing as the righteously vengeful cafà (C) proprietor Ida, who understands Rose's foolish passion only too well and is determined to save her young employee from herself and from Pinkie.

The camera work makes the most of the seaside locations: the English coastline is made to look magnificent, even as the grim storyline makes the picturesque scenery more and more bloodstained. The body count and the variety of particularly grotesque killings make everything seem a little less real towards the end, but this is a very stylish and entertaining slice of modern film noir.