Dir. Paddy Considine , UK, 2011, 92 mins
Cast: Peter Mullan, Olivia Coleman, Eddie Marsan
Review by Carol Allen
Paddy Considine is a very good actor. But his feature film debut as director/writer, suggests that perhaps his real talent lies behind the camera. This is very powerful drama.
Mullan plays Joseph, a widower, who drinks heavily and has a dangerously unstable temper. Considine takes a big risk when introducing him at the beginning of the film, as Joseph lurches out of a pub after a violent argument and in his uncontrollable fury kicks his beloved dog to death. His grief over that act manages to earn our sympathy but still he lurches from one violent encounter to another, until one day in despair he takes refuge in a charity shop, where Hannah (Coleman), who works there, befriends him and it looks as though we’re set for the story of Joseph’s redemption by this kind and Christian woman. This was where the short film, from which Considine developed this screenplay, ended – with a glimmer of hope for the future. But he then takes another risk, when we learn that Hannah is the victim of a horrifyingly abusive marriage and the focus of the film gradually shifts from Joseph to her.
Coleman, best known for television comedy roles in such shows as Peep Show and Black Books, shows herself here as a strong dramatic actress. She is magnificent in the role, as she takes us beneath the surface of Hannah’s apparent serenity and faith to reveal the nightmare that is her marital life. Marsan as her husband James manages to suggest in his limited screen time the Jekyll and Hyde aspect of the character. He shows a gentle, civilised exterior, that of a man who can beg his wife for forgiveness like a child and, as we can see from the fear her face as she tries to reassure him, turn on a coin into an abusive monster. There is a sequence where Hannah, terrified to go home, goes out and gets drunk. When James comes to collect her, our anticipation and fear of what is going to happen to her, is scarier than any horror film. We know this is real life, not fantasy.
As an actor himself, Considine knows how to get the best from his cast. The performances are unhistrionic and many layered and the relationship that grows between Joseph and Hannah is subtle and unsentimental with a total ring of truth. The background to Joseph’s solitary life, in terms of the family, who live across the road from him, the cheeky little boy who is befriends him despite his difficult nature and the boy’s also violent “stepfather”, give the main story a sense of texture and of the world outside. But it is Coleman’s performance that will haunt you. Considine has created in her a genuine and very moving contemporary tragedy.
[cinemabase tt1204340 video_player]
xx - posted on 23/05/2012 13:13:28
1 Trackback or Pingback
[...] Recommended Article FROM http://www.close-upfilm.com/2011/10/tyrannosaur-18-close-up-film-review/ [...]