Dvd review: Harry Brown

After the death of one of his friends an old ex royal marine takes matters in his own hands and start fighting back the young thugs that are ruining his neighborhood.

Basically the premise is “Death wish” with a proper actor, Michael Caine instead of Charles Bronson, and a realistic approach.

Of course Michael Caine is excellent and therefore the anguish of his character is really engrossing. The real drama is not in the shoot outs, is in watching a person react against an impossible situation by doing the unthinkable.

There is no glamour in this movie, if it weren’t for the action scenes this could have been a perfect example of “social realism”, and so we can relate to it so much more. When Jason Statham goes on a rampage its fun but its connection with real life is at best very tenuous, instead here we are watching life as we know it, we see the kind of petty crimes that we are all subjected to, the kind of crimes that made us, all of us, wish just for one moment to do what Harry Brown does.

There’s an interesting detournement at the end where they try to develop the subject and make it less about “Hoodie terror” but smartly they raise a lot of questions without giving too many answers so it’s up to the viewer to make up his opinion.

Without Michael Caine this would have been standard fare but the strength of his performance carry the whole movie to another level.