A VIOLENT MAN
Cert In cinemas and on digital now
18
You used to know what to expect from a Craig Fairbrass film. But lockdown seems to have had a profound effect on the British gangster movie stalwart.
Shot in lockdown, this grim drama sees the Rise Of The Footsoldier star growl long, philosophical monologues as a tortured jailbird serving a life sentence a dingy prison cell.
Fairbrass oozes charisma and the hard-boiled dialogue from writer-director Ross McCall gives him plenty of scope for flexing his dramatic muscles. But it’s not an easy film to watch and, at times, it’s even more difficult to follow.
The plot sees Fairbrass’s Steve Mackelson, inside for murdering his wife and her lover, briefly get back in touch with his humanity to protect young inmate Marcus (Stephen Odubola) from a prison gang.
He’s also mulling over whether to accept a visit from his daughter who hasn’t spoken to him since he brutally murdered her mother.
The lighting is dark, the dialogue is peppered with prison slang and, despite a couple of striking outbursts of violence, the pace is glacially slow.
Fairbrass has the presence to carry the film’s heavier moments (his meeting with his daughter is heartbreaking) but this gloomy, ponderous film almost made me yearn for a good gangland brawl or shoot out.