368. Brighton Rock (2010)

Starring: Helen Mirren, Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough

Director: Rowan Joffe

Running Time: 111 mins

Brighton Rock is a British film about the leader of a mob in Brighton in the 1960s, a religious yet crazed teenager who takes a young woman under his wing, while he is being suspected of the murder of a local man on whom he seeked great vengeance.

This was actually quite bad for the most part. That may seem like the vaguest description ever, but it’s actually surprisingly accurate. Despite the fact that the story was clever, as it had been written 71 years earlier in a renowned novel, the film itself represented the characters, the plot and everything in between very poorly.

I was greatly irritated by this film for the majority of the duration because of the way it over-dramatised itself. There were dramatic music and cheesy lines abundant here, which couldn’t have been more annoying to hear while trying to get into what seemed like a promising story.

The characters were evidently all very symbolic and meaningful, however the meaning that was trying to be conveyed was not in this film, further disappointing me, as I felt as if the film could just provide some more clues as to the true symbols within the plot and the characters, it would make it just that bit easier to watch.

I have to say that the end of this film did partially make up for the rest of the film, with one period of about 10 seconds towards the end, involving one of the most dramatic and unexpected plot twists I’ve seen this year, but despite that, the rest of this film was, well rubbish, so that’s why it gets a 5.0 from me.