Harry Brown movie review from modmove

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Harry Brown
Harry Brown (Michael Caine) is a retired marine eking out a modest existence in his tenement housing estate, witnessing with disgust the violence and immorality gripping his neighbourhood. When his like-minded buddy fatefully attempts to take matters into his own hands, Brown draws on his military training with a view to getting all ‘Charles Bronson’ on their arses.

Harry Brown has been liberally compared to Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino and this comparison is valid. Both films depict ageing tough guys reeling at the social degradation of their beloved neighbourhoods. But really Harry Brown has more in common with the 1974 Charles Bronson starrer, Death Wish, a film about a mild-mannered architect who exacts vigilante justice on those who assaulted his family. What elevates Harry Brown above Death Wish, however, is that the late Charles Bronson has nothing Michael Caine as an actor. Harry Brown also has the benefit of not having its legacy sullied by a series of increasingly inept sequels (yet).

In his second feature film, director Daniel Barber poses a very grim indictment of the degradation of Western society. It's an indictment that plays nicely to our contemporary fears and is expertly and shockingly captured in a high impact opener of violent juvenile delinquency. From this point onward, we innately understand Brown's frustrations and his actions, and his frailties mirror our own perceived failures to exact justice against the forces of evil that surround us. Unlike us, however, Brown has a secret weapon - his military training - that he reluctantly, and quite illegally, appropriates for the greater good. Harry becomes our everyman hero and we are one with him. (Interestingly, these are the exact same principles that are also at play in the otherwise supremely incongruent Kick-Ass.) The ease with which we empathise with Brown is testament to Barber's authentic depiction of a fractured society and Caine's similarly authentic performance.

It's a shame then that the film should stumble so resolutely in its conclusion. What starts as a tense, grimy thriller with gritty realism, disappointingly ends up in clichéd Hollywood fantasy territory. Through a contrived plot turn and a wild west style conclusion, the cutting social commentary permeating the first three quarters of the film is sadly diminished and undermined, and the tragedy is that Barber and Caine's efforts resultantly count for much less as the credits roll. On the whole, however, this is a fine film, albeit one that shoots itself in the foot in the final straight.
Stuart Jamieson
www.harrybrown-movie.com


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