Review of Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2005) by Ben Z — 24 Sep 2007

Timothy Spall is Albert Pierrepoint, a hangman in 1930â??s England, following his fathers footsteps in a job that can only be described as: Something you wouldnâ??t choose to do unless itâ??s out of pride.

Pierrepoint is at that disposition. Married to a loving wife, Juliette Stevenson pretty much keeps him sane on a daily basis, they dare not speak about his job. Pierrepoint starts to get noticed by people of a higher power, his â??skillâ?? at doing the job clean and fast, and finds himself pulling the leaver on a number of high-profile Nazi murderers.

Eddie Marsan is also light relief for him as perhaps his only friend, a jovial chap who likes to sing and is having a torrid time with a young promiscuous woman who heâ??s fallen in love with. The subject matter is grim and the cinematography is such that you can smell the fear of those who perish.

Spall gives one of the best performances of his career, a man of stoic resilience, a look of sheer terror in his eyes yet a man whose thick-skin and incredibly positive outlook on life seems to get him through.

Though every man has his breaking point. Itâ??s powerful stuff, movingly acted by Spall, Stevenson and Marsan and easily one of the best British films of 2006.