Review of London Boulevard (2010) by Mike M — 27 Nov 2010

An odd one: an adaptation of a Ken Bruen crime novel â" inspired by Billy Wilderâ(TM)s "Sunset Blvd." â" which plays on screen like an upmarket, Rilke-quoting version of every other film Danny Dyer has been involved with.

.. Farrell exudes a focused, low-key cool in suits and white T-shirts, while Monahan locates a vein of pallid, needy strangeness in Knightley that proves the film's closest link to Norma Desmond and makes one rather regret the manner in which she comes to be crowded out of the plotting - it's a film haunted by the spectre of deleted scenes, and I suspect there will be those who'd prefer it was sent back to the editing suite for a while longer.

As it stands, the faux-Scorsese soundtrack's obvious and overdone (blame the music coordinator: Serge Pizzorno of never-knowingly-original longhairs Kasabian), and matters get generic as Mitchell reverts to type, but it's a mostly diverting, stylishly shot scramble: a little less zany, granted, but otherwise no more and no less than this year's "Lucky Number Slevin".