Review of Harry Brown (2009) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

This is quite a dark (gritty) British crime drama film. It is inevitably rather bleak and thus grim in tone but I thought it was quite good, in terms of the character development relating to the titular character and the themes covered.

I have no doubt that a large number of older people living in the London area feel frustrated and annoyed with the anti-social (at best) criminal behaviour of gangs of youths and given what happened to people he held dear, I felt quite angry on his behalf and concerned for what may ultimately happen, which is a sign of a decent film when you can connect in one way or another to the main character.

Michael Caine plays the main role and he did so well I thought. I found myself feeling irritated by the response the police gave, the lack of action by the authorities. I'm not one who is generally pro vigiliantism but I did feel I could somewhat understand where the titular character was coming from and this helped me feel more engrossed in the film.

Of course this is an 18 rated film and so there's a fair bit of bloody violence and lots of very strong language, plus one or two short clips featuring pornography and drug related scenes. I did feel that perhaps, towards the end, things (plot wise) went a little too over the top but otherwise its a decent watch.

Overall I felt this was quite a well written and acted film and I would recommend it, yes.