Don’t let the fancy-sounding English accents fool you. Harry Brown is a vigilante flick, pure and simple, a bleak and bloody blending of Death Wish and Gran Torino starring Michael Caine that just happens to be set in England.
Caine plays an ex-serviceman living in a South London neighborhood where gangs of drug-pushing punks harass, beat and even kill the local citizenry. After they brutally murder his best friend, Caine decides to dispatch them himself, a sympathetic cop (Emily Mortimer) close on his trail.
This is one bleak movie. No one in it is happy, no one ever smiles and the punks are predictably nasty people. I also don’t recall seeing any actual sunshine. It’s either overcast, raining or nighttime. Mortimer walks around in a constant funk, and Caine’s character suffers not one, but two wrenching personal losses. He’s a miserable man.
I didn’t necessarily mind the solemn tone, but it does seem just a tad ridiculous to be so serious when your movie is about a 77-year-old man single-handedly blowing away scumbags. People expecting a proper British drama might get the wrong impression. I mean, this thing is violent. Junkies shoot up and punks get stabbed in the chest and shot in the neck or stomach as CGI blood spurts out.
Again, not complaining, and Caine does solid work, covering a number of emotional bases. He weeps at the loss of those closest to him, interrogates a punk by threatening to blow off his knees and, in the film’s lone light moment, gets to deliver a clever quip to the lowlife (Jack O’Connell, perfectly scummy) from whom he tries to buy a gun.
As well director Daniel Barber proves very capable in establishing mood, like how Caine moves zombie-like through his morning routine. And he generates superb suspense when Caine confronts a couple punks in the public underpass where the gangs congregate. Speaking of which, he makes that underpass–the film’s what’s-wrong-with-kids-today symbol–seem truly forbidding.
All in all, it’s not nearly as enjoyable as Gran Torino, but still makes for a respectable two hours. It wraps up with a fiery finale that features not only a weak plot twist, but a chance to laugh at Mortimer’s ridiculous late-in-the-game plea to Caine to stop the killing. If she’s what the British police force considers to be one of its smarter members, it’s no wonder Alfie started packing heat. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]
Crime/Drama/Thriller
Rated R
DVD Release Date: 8/31/10