This film had the potential to be a gritty realism movie about lone sharking. But the end product is an overly long overly emotionalised meandering pastiche of This is England and Eden Lake with a bit of Essex Boys thrown in for good measure.
And that for me is this film's problem, it starts off as a well constructed idea which then over plays it's hand. With less of the character building and emotional narrative supposed anchors; the autistic son is an irrelevant attempt at emotionally blackmailing the audience that fails.
The only worthy piece of acting comes from Jonathan Slinger, whose Mr Nice Guy act is genuinely believable; as is his sadistic alter ego.
The two female leads are so over developed in the start of the movie that they quickly become self parodies, more so in case of the supposed street wise and sassy Bex.
This means that the well constructed start rapidly becomes directionless and erratic in both plot progression and plot cohesion. However, the saving grace is the sheer brutality of the closing scenes. Although gratuitous, the violence is held within context of story and ability of protagonists.
Overall a nice try hence the seven stars
And that for me is this film's problem, it starts off as a well constructed idea which then over plays it's hand. With less of the character building and emotional narrative supposed anchors; the autistic son is an irrelevant attempt at emotionally blackmailing the audience that fails.
The only worthy piece of acting comes from Jonathan Slinger, whose Mr Nice Guy act is genuinely believable; as is his sadistic alter ego.
The two female leads are so over developed in the start of the movie that they quickly become self parodies, more so in case of the supposed street wise and sassy Bex.
This means that the well constructed start rapidly becomes directionless and erratic in both plot progression and plot cohesion. However, the saving grace is the sheer brutality of the closing scenes. Although gratuitous, the violence is held within context of story and ability of protagonists.
Overall a nice try hence the seven stars