Review of Harry Brown (2009) by Edward P — 14 Sep 2011

The narrative for Harry Brown is not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. It is a concept which has proven to be common-place over the past few years through the likes of Gran Terino, The Brave One and Hobo with a Shotgun: an aging relic from the WWII/Cold War generation with a strong sense of moral purpose taking a stand against a modern world ripe with social decay. It is a sort of retro-revivalism of sorts where the now defunct state of masculine chivalry is given one last right-wing hurrah before the final curtain falls. Thankfully, Harry Brown remains the best of the bunch not through its violence or through it's socio-political rhetoric but by simply feeling more real and true to life than its peers.

Purely from the perspective of story, this dark Matthew Vaughn produced indy thriller by director Daniel Barber has all the hallmarks of a modern film noir. Michael Caine's titular retired British Marine is typically dispassionate, endearing only in the sense that he is not as ghastly as those he seeks to punish. Like all protagonists placed in this kind of scenario, Caine's Brown is a product of the world which spawned him. A world where the elderly are little more than wounded prey and the youth are malevolent pack hunters. Whilst it could be argued that the squalid council estates of urban Britain have always maintained that culture, but unlike many previous looks at delinquency in working class Britain (Fish Tank, Nil by Mouth, This is England et al) there is no attempt to empathize with any of the four juvenile antagonists. They are murderers and their crimes are irredeemable. Plain and simple.

And in that harsh moral simplicity, Barber draws all of his terrifying creative power. On first viewing, the scariest element of Harry Brown is by far the truism that none of the monsters in this working class dystopia are exaggerated. From the stuttering, detracted man-whore to the scarred, jittery drug dealer (who is by far one of the scariest movie characters ever!) each of the atrocious individuals Brown encounters on his quest for vengeance feel anything less than real. Proof perhaps how in the real world, demons wear human skins.

Couple this with excellent performances from the ensemble cast of Emily Mortimer, Charlie-Creed Miles and Liam Cunningham and Harry Brown proves to be a nasty decent into a decidedly down-to-Earth hell. Particular credit should be afforded to Nil-by-Mouth star Creed-Miles for his portrayal of conflicted police officer torn between duty and personal malice. Under different circumstances, this character could easily have been penned as the lead and his shaky though stable partnership with Mortimer's forensic psychologist occasionally carries shades of Se7en.

The selling point for Harry Brown, however, comes in it's climax. Even the grand political spectacle of V for Vendetta can not equal the momentous clash between Scotland Yard and the riotous mob of council estate hooligans (a macrocosm of the chaos which has engulfed the lives of all who have become involved in Brown's actions). In light of the string of riots which swept through the cities of Britain in August of this year, these images seem almost prophetic in their display of the fragile balance between police oppression and the anarchy of lawlessness.

Harry Brown is not a film for fans of huge explosions or action sequences, nor is it a philosophical exploration of how living conditions influence behavior. Rather it is a harsh uncompromising statement about civilization. Between vigilante justice and the impartiality of the law. It seeks to identify the fine line between reason and madness in modern society and ultimately to question whether either truly exists in a world where the only law is law of the jungle and where uniforms offer now power. Brutal stuff but worth the catharsis.