Harry Brown Review

Why are British films always so bleak and dour? There is an extended scene in Harry Brown wherein Michael Caine (the eponymous Brown) visits two local gun and drug dealers on the pretext of buying a gun. This scene is grim to start with and gets progressivley more so, culminating in the video playing in the background of the two men having sex with the drugged out woman they keep on the couch. I have no reason to doubt that horror like this goes on in certain parts of the city but, just because you fill your film with the most awful things you can think of or have heard actually happened, doesn't mean you're necessarily saying anything interesting or important about them. And in the end, this is the problem that Harry Brown can't escape.

Michael Caine is Harry Brown, a retired ex-marine, recently widowed, living on an estate that is over run with crime and youth violence. When his chess partner and friend Len is viciously killed by a gang, Harry decides that enough is enough and goes about exacting some measure of justice. I mean revenge. Wait, which is it? Stories like these can be very problematic in this regard and this film, with its dubious politics and mixed messages, is no exception. Violence is awful. Except when it's justified. Stabbing a pensioner is horrific but wrapping barbed wire around a hoodie's neck is perfectly acceptable. Violence begets violence we're told but Harry Brown's murderous rampage has nothing but positive consequences. It's yet another film that demonizes every young person with his hood up and portrays the council estate as some kind of zoo for the depraved. Are some estates like this? Are there violent youths? Street violence? Of course the answer to these questions is yes but the simple fact is that we know this already. What else have you got to say? And the plain truth is that the film has nothing new to say. It's revenge fantasy with pretensions, nothing more.

There is something undeniably iconic about seeing Michael Caine in a buttoned up, black overcoat, staring into the camera. At 78, he seems to be still going strong and his place as one of the movie greats is assured. But, as much as I enjoy watching him, I never quite believe him in roles like this. I've always found him at his best in comedy, something he does much too little of. The film has been getting generally good reviews but I really believe this is because of the presence of Michael Caine. Harry Brown is the debut film of director Daniel Barber and there is undeniable confidence in much of how he directs the film. A big problem however is that scenes are pushed way past the point of interest, the scene I mentioned at the begining with Caine confronting the drug dealers for example, or a ludicrously extended section where every member of the gang is interviewed by the police. I suspect Barber thinks he is building tension in these scenes but they end up falling very flat. Supporting characters are very short-changed and any time Caine isn't on the screen, the film loses the only card it has to play.

Every year some new version of the "ordinary man takes the law into his own hands" film gets made. This year has seen no fewer than three with Clint's Gran Torino, Caine's Harry Brown and Gerard Butler in Law Abiding Citizen coming up in a couple of weeks. Harry Brown has been drawing comparisons with Gran Torino, comparisons I'm sure Daniel Barber is pleased with. I saw an interview with him in which he said that he would hate to think that his film would be compared to Death Wish, Michael Winner's 1970s exploitation thriller with Charles Bronson. If you ask me, Death Wish is the better film.

3/10