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Title: Harry Brown (2009)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Michael Caine | ... | Harry Brown | |
| Emily Mortimer | ... | D.I. Alice Frampton | |
| Charlie Creed-Miles | ... | D.S. Terry Hicock (as Charlie Creed Miles) | |
| David Bradley | ... | Leonard Attwell | |
| Iain Glen | ... | S.I. Childs | |
| Sean Harris | ... | Stretch | |
| Plan B | ... | Noel Winters (as Ben Drew) | |
| Jack O'Connell | ... | Marky | |
 |
Jamie Downey | ... | Carl |
|
|
Lee Oakes | ... | Dean Saunders |
| Joseph Gilgun | ... | Kenny | |
| Liam Cunningham | ... | Sid Rourke | |
|
|
Marva Alexander | ... | Nurse #1 |
|
|
Liz Daniels | ... | Kath Brown |
| Marvin Campbell | ... | Stunt Neighbour (as Marvin Stewart-Campbell) | |
In England, retired Royal Marine Harry Brown spends his lonely life between the hospital, where his beloved wife Kath is terminally ill, and playing chess with his only friend Leonard Attwell in the Barge pub owned by Sid Rourke. After the death of Kath, Len tells his grieving friend the local gang is harassing him and he is carrying an old bayonet for self-defence. Harry suggests he to go to the police. When Len is beaten, and stabbed to deatry detective Inspector Alice Frampton and her partner Sergeant Terry Hicock are sent to investigate. They pay Harry a visit but don't have good news; the police have not found any other evidence, other than the bayonet, in order to arrest the hoodlums. This mean that should the case go to trial the gang would claim self-defence. Harry Brown sees that justice will not be granted and decides to take matters into his own hands. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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The pre main-credit sequence, shot to resemble mobile-phone footage, had the desired effect: the sense of shock from the capacity audience was palpable. The film then slows down to show the reality of Harry Brown's life as a pensioner on a South London high-rise estate . Showing his routine of walking to the hospital to visit his very ill wife, having to walk a long way round to avoid confrontation with an unseen group of youths who use an underpass as their base and his meetings with his old friend and chess partner Lenny in the estate pub. There aren't many other people walking about the estate, even in daylight, out of fear of the gun-carrying teenage gangs.
Michael Caine's performance as Harry Brown is wonderful. His timing is spot-on. Credit to director Daniel Barber for allowing him space to breathe and not be hurried. In fact the overall pacing is excellent. There is good use of the soundtrack with the lack of intrusive music adding to the reality feel of the film. The night scenes are beautifully lit as well with a good balance between just enough to see what's going on and making the lighting realistic: the night scene in the pub with the lights out, for instance.
This film has been compared to 'Death Wish' and 'Gran Torino', but those films haven't got this film's bleak, realistic look at how life is in these areas. There always remains a sense of watching a film, of entertainment, of it being 'Hollywood'. This is a lot more down to earth. This film has more in common with Mike Leigh's TV drama 'Meantime' and with 'Gomorra'.
This isn't an easy 'first-date' film but it is a superior Brit film, one of the best for many years. I'm glad to see that it has got some marketing push behind it and has generated column inches talking about the subject of these 'no-go' areas and society in general.
Shocking and brilliant.