Review of Offender (2012) by The D — 03 Jan 2013

Joe Cole really makes this film. Playing a hardworking boyfriend and expectant father, Tommy, he has everything to live for. This is shattered when his probation officer girlfriend Elise (Nixon) witnesses those responsible for an armed robbery amongst the backdrop of the London riots. They exact her silence in brutal fashion. Tommy reeling from the events gets himself incarcerated in a young offenders institute to find those responsible.

Cole is particularly convincing as a man normally capable of controlling a hot temper who is pushed over the edge. It shows just through his face all through and not just as some lad who thinks he's hard.

What I did find hard to comprehend was the white members of the cast talking like "they is from Haarlem" but that in itself is where the film offers a realistic outlook as you hear it on the streets everyday.

Also the ending is a little ambiguous and for me incomplete. It is brutal but not visually the emphasis being placed more in the mental torment being endured.