Directors Teague and Durfort try to establish a sense of style, but all they do is borrow from other films. And the result, while intense and somewhat involving, is just too unoriginal to grip us. We've seen it before, from the horrible, "unexpected" gunfire to the seedy squats with graffiti lined walls and carefully placed junkies and candles. There are a few nice surprises, performance-wise. Howard starts out as a typically broad Sarf Londoner, then turns into a truly believable guy trapped between his life of crime and his wife (Lynskey) and child. It's powerful and quite involving, especially as events begin to squeeze around him. Dempsey is also terrific as the film's sardonic narrator, the guy who just wants to get it over as quickly as possible. But everyone else gets the shorthand treatment--either in simplistically defined characters (who of course do something unexpected!) or colourful cameos. As a result the story seems unsubstantial and overly twisty, and the whole film feels both familiar and rather pretentious.

strong themes, language, violence, drugs

16.Oct.01