Michael Caine has had a hell of a career, including some classics sitting alongside some proper stinkers, but in recent years he seems to have been reduced to bit part roles in Christopher Nolan films. Alfred the butler here, Leo DiCaprio’s dad there. He does a decent job with the parts but 90 seconds of screen time in a film doesn’t do the good man justice.
Harry Brown is a proper leading role for Caine, it’s the titular character and the whole film hangs on him and his performance. Brown is a former marine, now a pensioner who turns vigilante when his best mate is killed by the hoodies who terrorise the estate in which he lives. On paper it sounds like a perfect role for Caine in the twilight of his career, bit of emotion and trauma for the thespian in him but also plenty of vengeance and anger for the younger spirit that continues to live on.
At the opening of the film he is very impressive, he doesn’t just look old (as he actually is), he also acts old. He has a weary resignation etched onto his face, going through the same routine every morning, life doesn’t seem as though it’s worth living. He also moves as an old man, back hunched over slowly ambling his way to the hospital to see his sick wife. The scenes where he shares a pint with his mate Lennie in the pub are sad to watch. They idle the hours away playing chess, complaining about the wrongs of the modern world while pining for the better days in the past. I almost watched in disbelief as I saw Caine as I had never seen him before, seemingly on his last legs.
Then the tragic death occurs and the film shifts. As does Harry Brown, and consequently Caine’s performance. Gone is the weariness, replaced by a steely determination as he calls on his marine training. In terms of character development, it’s job well done by Caine, however, all of the good work in the physical aspect of the role is lost as he starts running around with guns and knives, like an elderly Rambo. Although he does it just about adequately, it’s out of sync with what went before it and all feels a bit silly. One moment, he's the sad, tearful bloke in the corner of a pub, the next he's Jason Statham's military trained Uncle.
It’s a shame because it’s a very interesting concept - I’m sure there is a part in all of us that would love to speak up on the bus when a nasty piece of work is being horrible to an old Doris, and there is a film to be made or a story to be told about the everyman fighting back. This film is not it though, despite it being desperate to be the one.
Daniel Barber the director (his first film) clearly wants this film to be a bit of social commentary as well as entertainment. At time these attempts work, such as the film culminating in a riot and the inadequacies of the police to, but at others it feels a obvious and spelt out - the press conference close to proceedings is not effective and not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. As far as Barber is concerned, the film looks the part, but that is as good as it gets.
The supporting cast is a bit of a let down as well, Emily Mortimer never believable as the police woman in charge of the investigation. Mind you, if you've got Caine being Chuck Norris, I suppose you think you can get away with anything. Ben Drew (aka Plan B for those of the music persuasion) is the lead hoodie and is decent enough, but being nasty and using rude words isn't particularly stretching on the acting front.
It promises on the premise and at the beginning but it quickly devolves into an incidental film that believes it is much more than that, becoming more and more stupid until it reaches an ending that is very Eastenders meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, ensuring that all credibility is seen off with an ASBO.
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