2 reviews

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Peter Tickler November 9, 2009

Anything Clint Eastwood can do in Gran Torino, Michael Caine does almost as well in Harry Brown, facing down the punks who are threatening to destroy his community. In fact, as a piece of acting Caine does it just as well - the only drawback being that, as a film, Harry Brown lacks the moral ambiguity of Gran Torino. It’s more a case of Charles’s Bronson’s Death Wish meets the iconic Caine film Get Carter, without anything new to say.

The film paints a bleak picture of the kind of housing-estate London which one hopes doesn't exist in too many places in reality. Caine is hugely impressive in an understated way as the ill pensioner living in a dingy apartment in a miserable high-rise estate dominated by drugs, guns and fear. The death of his ill wife and the murder of his friend Len in an underpass (the underpass that no-one dare use) tip the balance and Caine - the ex-Marine (well, what do you expect, an ex-ballet dancer?) - cracks, stabbing a knife wielding druggie who tries to rob him. Detective Inspector Frampton (Emily Mortimer) does her best to pull in Len’s killers, but the police are powerless, so it is Caine who seeks reluctant revenge.

Inevitably it all builds to a violent climax, with fire-bombing rioters providing the back-cloth (deliberate comparison with Northern Ireland here) as Caine and Mortimer try and take down the chief scumbag and his Irish uncle (why Irish?). This is then, in short, an entertaining film, with Caine ably combining two of his hallmark personas - the charming old codger and the brutal killer. He was a pleasure to watch.

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Glenn Watson November 9, 2009

“You’ve failed to maintain your weapon, son” says a laconic Michael Caine before blowing away a dirtbag drug-dealer. It’s Harry Brown but he could be Dirty Harry, out of retirement and inviting hoodies to ‘make my day’.

Widower Harry Brown is an ex-marine who enjoys the occasional drink with his war-vet pal Leonard (David Bradley). But the local housing estate is now overrun with hoodlums and the pensioners’ world is not the one they fought for. And when Leonard stands up to the feral youths, he’s killed, his demise caught on a mobile phone. Harry’s distraught and takes it upon himself to mete out justice. But first he needs a gun…

Michael Caine is the only reason to watch Harry Brown. He gives it the gravitas which just about stops it being another squalid Brit-flick stuck in the social gutter. Even the director can’t decide whether Brown is iconic – like Dirty Harry – or a real man torn by emotions. "Michael Caine is....Harry Brown" boasts the portentous opening credit. A hard man then – but hardly subtle in its set-up.

Caine knows better and invests the role with kind of pathos he brought recently to Is Anybody There? We feel the loss of his wife and his lonely bond with Leonard. And with both gone, we feel his desolation. It’s the crucial scene with the drug-dealer cum gun-runner where it all changes. Uncertainty and fear reforge Harry Brown’s fighting spirit.

Armed and very dangerous, Brown tracks down the ring-leaders of Leonard’s death. It’s an 18 certificate for a reason, with torture and violence never far away. Yet it’s black and white stuff. Emily Mortimer is fine as the detective who suspects Brown’s behind the swathe of retribution. But can Brown catch the killers before the cops catch him?

Shot in dirty tones, Harry Brown’s a grimy film. And hardly original. It’s Jodie Foster’s The Brave One – with a pensioner, not a young woman, dispensing the justice. It’s Liam Neeson’s Taken - scumbags brought down by an ex-special forces dad. And the spectre of Death Wish is ever present. Let alone Dirty Harry.

Such films either tread social waters or tip toward titillation. Harry Brown manages to sit on the fence, though, doing both. And that’s thanks to Caine and to a story that’s at times like a gunslinging Eastenders. There are twists – of knife and plot – and the hoodies are horribly realized.

But it’s Caine’s movie. Passing a hoodie-infested underpass he’s every scared pensioner afraid to go places. Pointing a pistol, he’s not a cipher like Dirty Harry, he’s a veteran back to haunt the streets he fought for. It’s believable stuff.

Unafraid to act his age – and beyond it – Caine is playing out the final stages of the ages of man. And Harry Brown is about a man first. And maintaining your weapon second.