The preview caught my attention right away when I first saw it last summer. An older British man pushed too far who takes the law into his own hands always sounds like a good plan to me. British crime thrillers in general are usually almost always solid movies worth checking out (in my mind at least). What put this one over the top is the casting with an acting legend taking the role of the elderly British vigilante. Who better to play the better than Michael Caine, one of the all-time greats and still one of the coolest actors around at the age of 77. My biggest problem though has nothing to do with Caine, instead it's that the story stays too close -- almost identical -- to the original Death Wish.
After the death of his wife, aging widower Harry Brown (Caine) struggles to move on with his life, adjusting to his own situation while also seeing the world change around him....and not for the better. He's dealt another blow with his long-time friend and chess partner, Leonard (David Bradley), is knifed by a gang of thugs and deadbeats and dies soon after. Harry is helped by two police officers (Emily Mortimer and Charlie Creed-Miles) who try to actually help him but tell him there's little to be done or anything that can be done in apprehending the murderer(s). Fed up with the system and a general disgust at the world, Harry decides to find the killers himself, avenging his friend's death no matter what it takes or who gets caught up in the process.
Taking a slight detour away from Harry Brown specifically and talking about vigilante movies in general, there is something vastly appealing about vigilantes in my head. Read the newspaper, watch TV, listen to the radio, and all you see are reports are murders, rapists and in general, scum of the Earth getting away with crimes because of little glitches, little things. Even the ones who do get caught, it's hard to look at the world and see it as anything but dirty, seedy, and downright filthy. The system just doesn't work well all the time. So when one person takes it upon himself to right a wrong, how great is that? We're not talking a raving lunatic preaching about good and evil, just one individual person doing what they think needs to be done. Yes, they're just movies, but a movie vigilante is almost always a good thing.
At the young age of 77, Michael Caine is as cool as ever. The Batman movies put him back into the limelight to a certain point and even introduced him to a younger generation of movie fans. This is by no means Caine's best performance or even near his top 10. Playing Harry Brown is something he could most likely do in his sleep. None of that is to say that Caine's acting here isn't solid. He's the high point of the movie. It's an emotional performance, and a physical one too, one that shows Caine still has it. He switches back and forth between scenes that show him emotionally drained at the loss of his wife and best friend with highly dramatic scenes when he goes rogue where Caine's steely-eyed stare can send shivers down your back. Whether he's 27 or 77, I wouldn't want to stare this guy down. Big picture? Michael Caine is cooler than you.
So Harry Brown has that going for it, but there's not much else to distinguish it from Charles Bronson and Death Wish. Yes, the London setting is obviously different from New York City in the 1970s, and director Daniel Barber does a great job of making the city another character in the story. The movie is dark -- story-wise and visually -- and gives you the sensation of actually living in a crime-ridden part of the city. But overall, it's almost identical to Death Wish as the story develops right down to the twists and characters. That's not a bad thing because Death Wish is a quality movie, but I was expecting a little bit more, a little bit of something different from its predecessor.
Watching the trailer and noticing the similarities between Harry Brown and Death Wish, I was expecting an action-packed story with Caine mowing down wave after wave of baddies, throwing one-liners left and right to the audience's delight (mine included). I was surprised then because the movie isn't like that at all. Thanks again, trailer editors! The first 45 minutes is a slow build as we see Harry slowly start to build up his anger, his resentment. Even when he goes vigilante, it's not a killing spree. He goes after the killers of his friend and little else, still causing quite a stir (Ben Drew is perfectly evil as the main villain). The tone shifts some in the last 30 minutes in a somewhat disappointing turn of events that try to make a bigger, more appropriate statement, a judgment about society and all its flaws.
Besides Caine though, no one jumps out in the cast. Mortimer is the best of the rest as Inspector Alice Frampton. She begins to suspect Harry is up to something but doesn't have the proof to go after him. Alice sees that his way may be the better way but is held down by the limitations of her job. You want to like this character, but like much of the movie, it keeps you at arm's length. As a viewer, I felt for Caine's Brown and his predicament, his current state of mind, but no one else is interesting in the least. The movie lacks that secondary interest, that heart that would make it worthwhile on a deeper level. Good but not great, and worth watching for Michael Caine.
Harry Brown <--- trailer (2009): ** 1/2 /****
No comments:
Post a Comment