HARRY BROWN / THE HIT

Dir. Daniel Barber UK 2009

Dir. Stephen Frears UK 1984

"It's just a moment. We're here. Then we're not here. We're somewhere else... maybe. And it's as natural as breathing. Why should we be scared?"

I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job thematically (if not obviously) pairing these reviews up and I just went with two British crime flicks I'd been meaning to see for a while. One was pretty good, one was pretty bad. In we go:

Harry Brown got a small US release this past April, and it had some interesting buzz surrounding it at the time. It's the first film by director Daniel Barber and was pretty much advertised as Death Wish with Michael Caine. That descriptor alone should provide most of the plot synopsis, but I'll give you a short one just for the hell of it.

Harry Brown is a long-retired Royal Marine who's sickly wife passes away in the first five minutes of the film. Harry is left alone in his flat in an extremely run-down housing project that is overrun with nihilistic young gangs of drug dealers. Harry fills his empty days by playing chess with his only friend, another elderly man named Leonard, in a local pub. When Leonard suffers a fatal encounter with the gangs plaguing their neighborhood, Harry reaches his breaking point and is forced to bust out his old school military training to clean up the streets.

Like I said, it's basically Death Wish, although in a lot of ways it's also a much more conventional take on the material covered by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. Unfortunately, with the exception of Caine's performance (which is unsurprisingly great), I'd pretty much call this film a complete failure. It's kind of amazing that anyone, even a first time director, was able to botch such a tried and true concept, especially when working with such a reliable and talented lead actor.

The problems with this film all start with the script. Like I said, the story isn't particularly original, but this film devolves into obvious cliches at every turn and just glosses over plot points as it goes on, all smacking of an untested first-time writer/director. The friendship between Harry and Leonard is poorly established, showing us that they drink together and play chess, but giving us no indication of how they know each other, or for how long, making the main thrust of the film feel empty. The villains in the film are ridiculously over-the-top caricatures that are never represented as anything less than completely, irredeemably evil, collectively or individually. They run guns, deal drugs, make snuff films and perpetrate random acts of violence, but are also represented having some kind of organized structure, which doesn't really make that much sense. The police are also portrayed collectively as incompetent and uncaring, to the point that it's completely unrealistic, all of which works toward building a world where the audience has to believe that Harry is the only one who can take action. It's lazy writing, plain and simple. I won't spoil the ending, but the final act contains a preposterous action sequence as well as an extremely stupid pseudo-twist that, surprise surprise, feels cheap and completely unrealistic.

Caine aside, the acting in this film is pretty terrible, but the person I was most surprised by was Emily Mortimer. Although I haven't seen her in much, she has a good reputation as a decent actress and I instantly latched on to her demure presence and overall adorableness when she first popped up in the movie. By the end, I was trying to decide if she'd been horribly miscast or had just completely botched the interpretation of her character. She plays the detective investigating Leonard's murder, who eventually comes to suspect that Harry is responsible for the rash of anti-criminal violence. You'd expect this part (played by either a man or a woman) to fall into typical hardass cop cliches, but that would have been preferable to what actually happens. Mortimer plays the part like a frightened mouse, unable to stand up to her superiors, whispering reprimands at her partner and generally appearing to be completely pathetic. Her complete lack of physical competence or any kind of believable personal drive made her wholly unsympathetic and boring, and you know how bad it must be if I'm unable to sympathize with a character played by a cute British woman.

As always, Michael Caine not only did the best with what he had, but seemed to really pour himself into this role. He carries himself with a combination of righteous anger and weary grief that kept me compelled despite everything else being a total suck-fest. Shots like him standing silent and alone at his friends funeral while another giant procession passes by and his lonely, monotonous morning routine were some of the few well-made directorial choices in the film, and Caine sells every minute of it.

My last complaint about this movie before I move on is fucking CGI bullet hits. I know I just nitpicked this in my Boardwalk Empire review, but this exclusively featured CGI bullet hits and stabbings and holy shit did it look fake. Like, laughably fake. This shit bothers me slightly less in sci-fi or comic book movies like Kick-Ass, where it sort of meshes with the aesthetic, but I'm watching a gritty crime thriller here, not playing Resident Evil 4. It's probably weird that I fixate so much on this, but I just don't understand how this can possibly be seen as cheaper or more effective than using practical effects. Someone please explain it to me.



Much more interesting and enjoyable was The Hit, an early effort from director Stephen Frears, best known in America for directing The Grifters, High Fidelity and The Queen. The Hit tells the story of Willie Parker (played by Terence Stamp), an English gangster who sells his companions up the river in the mid-70's in exchange for immunity following a failed bank robbery. Ten years later, Willie is enjoying his retirement in sunny Spain, until he is kidnapped by the ice-cold Braddock (played by John Hurt) and his over-eager protege Myron (a hilariously young Tim Roth), who intend to return him to his former comrades so they can have their revenge. What follows is Sexy Beast by way of In Bruges in sort of a road trip format.

My interest in this film was piqued when I saw that it was a Criterion release, and they're pretty flawless when it comes to releasing movies that are, at the very least, interesting. Also, John Hurt and Terence Stamp are badass and I was extremely curious to see what Tim Roth looked like when he was younger than me (as you saw above, the answer is: kinda goofy). The movie isn't particularly action packed, but when violence does strike, it's pretty brutal and unexpected. There are very few speaking parts in the film beyond the three leads I just mentioned and a female lead who inadvertently gets wrapped up in this whole situation and ends up along for the ride. Everyone, however, is excellent and the script is structured in such a way that you can easily view any of those four characters as the protagonist of the film. The obvious character to latch onto is Willie, for whom this trek across western Europe is a days long death row march, but Stamp plays him with a sort of Zen-like sneakiness that allows you to not really worry too much about him as the film goes on, and instead get invested in the relationship between Braddock and Myron, which starts out frayed and deteriorates from there. I personally gravitated toward Braddock, who's backstory and thought process goes relatively unexplained, but is communicated very effectively by Hurt's performance, made all the more impressive by the fact that he wears sunglasses for most of the film. As the reckless young punk, Tim Roth (22 at the time the film was shot) overplays a bit, but still displays that charismatic spark that's carried him through most of his career. The fact that his character is a bit annoying would have probably stymied a lesser actor, but Roth carries it well.

The tone of the film (like In Bruges) fluctuates wildly, but never feels uneven. The score, which consists of flamenco music and some extremely 80's guitar licks, courtesy of Eric Clapton and Roger Waters, keeps the mood pretty light for much of the film, as does the easy-going nature of Stamp and Roth's characters. However, when the film turns on the intensity, it's pretty unforgiving. The opening scene, where Willie testifies against his friends, ends with him being lead out of the court as all his friends begin to sing "We'll Meet Again" in an incredibly foreboding fashion (what is it with that song by the way? Between this and the end of Dr. Strangelove, it's become way creepier than its authors ever intended, I'm sure). There's also a spectacularly tense sequence set at a gas station about two thirds of the way through and the ending, as you can imagine, is fairly intense. The movie never looses sight of this underlying direness, despite the frequent humor and sun-drenched scenery, best exemplified by the scene from which I pulled the quote at the top of the page, where Stamp explains his views on death, which allow him to remain calm and affable in the face of his impending execution. It's powerful stuff, and an excellent example of writing, directing and acting coming together for the best.

One other quick thing worth mentioning, in comparison to Harry Brown: the characters leave a swath of bodies in their wake as they make their way through Europe, thanks to a series of unfortunate coincidences and mistakes. Unlike Harry Brown, where an entire subplot told from the point of view of the police completely sucks the life from the film, The Hit utilizes scenes of a Spanish police captain tracking their crimes across the country. He has no lines, backstory or characterization to speak of, but it's an effective and simple way to both acknowledge the real world consequences of what's happening and creates a nice bit of tension to keep you worried for the protagonists.

UP NEXT: Going on a short vacation this weekend, and I won't see the new Boardwalk Empire episode til Monday night at the earliest. I'll try to have that posted by Tuesday night. Not sure what movies are up next. I'm overdue for seeing something in theaters. The Town and Buried both look interesting. Be back next week.