Review of Harry Brown (2009) by Rustyjudas — 22 Sep 2013

Harry Brown is a sick film innit?

Michael Caine plays the titular character Harry Brown a disgruntled O.A.P. widower who after hearing the news of his friends death at the hands of local thugs takes matters into his own hands.

The back story informs the audience that Harry was in the marines and stationed in Northern Ireland during the troubles. This handles the notion that Harry Brown can be adept w/ a weapon and be able to kill.

He lives alone and keeps a picture of his wife and deceased child by his bedside and his loneliness and isolation is represented by his hand on the pillow where his wife would lay if she was alive.

In fact Harry misses the last minutes of his wife's life as he had to circumvent the subway en route to the hospital due to the presence of local thugs.

To make matters worse these local thugs are also harassing his best friend who he plays chess w/ in the local dingy pub. Ultimately this will result in his friends death and result in Harry's switch to vigilantism.

The film is directed by newcomer Daniel Barber who had previously directed some award winning short. The film has a gritty realism which includes hand-held shots. Some of the exterior shots are lovely evoking the feel of Loach, Leigh etc.

However the interior shots are a lot more clichéd and shot in desaturated colours of brown and green etc they work well in the normal environments but the drug den for instance is overkill on the cliché. Ultimately the style is to look as grimy and mundane and atypical of an urban lifestyle.

Michael Caine gives the lead character gravitas and a world weariness which makes his descent into brutal revenge that little bit more convincing despite some of the ludicrous set pieces.

The film is excessively violent and might actually deter the audience it is aimed at which is the type of person who reads The Daily Mail and exclaims how the world has gone to pot and how something must be done but not doing anything themselves. In that respect it has become a wish-fulfilment movie and exploitation movie for the kitchen table newspaper reader.

No problems with that but there have been recent movies such as Gran Torino and Dead Man's Shoes which deal w/ the idea of vigilantism, turf war and the nature of revenge in a more stylish and thoughtful manner. This is more like Death Wish in its approach.

The fact that Harry brown isn't made accountable for his actions no matter how justified the audience feels is a tiny bit suspect on the writers approach.

Overall an entertaining movie which is well shot if unoriginal and can often delve into ludicrousness especially in its depiction of violence which almost tapers towards the Tarantinoesque.

The film doesn't explain the causes or symptoms of gang infested tenements but it's kind of implied that poverty, drugs (footage of some crack pipe action) and negligent parents (Plan B's mother is ineffective and defensive of her son's actions) are all factors in this cycle of crime.

One last thing Plan B is excellent he plays an obnoxious chav w/ relish and his affectionless psychopathy is pretty nauseating. I didn't realise it was him until I saw the end credits.