Brighton Rock: Blu Ray Review
Brighton Rock
Rating: R16
Released by Madman Home Entertainment
It's always hard to redo a film when another version exists
that's deemed a classic.
This version of Brighton Rock (based on Graham Greene's 1939 novel)
has had a few tweaks.
Set against a backdrop of unrest between the Mods vs Rockers scene,
the action takes place in Brighton; a Brighton of the sixties where
gangs of dissenting youth and mobsters roam the streets, taking to
anything they don't like with violence.
Pinkie (played with resentful ferocity by Sam Riley) is one of
those involved in a gang; he's more likely to crack a skull than a
smile - and he finds himself wrestling with power and greed after
he commits a murder.
Things get more complicated when Rose (a stunning Andrea
Riseborough) finds herself unwittingly in the middle of evidence
linking Pinkie's gang to the murder.
So Pinkie seduces the naïve Rose - as he tries to ensure she
doesn't talk...
But Rose's boss Ida (Helen Mirren) knows something's not right -
and soon finds herself embroiled in this tale of gangland by the
sea.
Brighton Rock is dark and gloomy - both in tone and in
lighting.
This story of shivs, shingle and shocks may take a while to
resonate with audiences - and many of the older persuasion will
take a lot to be convinced anyone can improve on Richard
Attenborough's performance.
In many ways, Pinkie's supposed to be the archetypal anti-hero but
he's very difficult to root for (sample moment - he decides whether
Rose loves him by pulling the legs off a spider). He's cold,
blessed with a permanent scowl, callous, ruthless and in Sam
Riley's hands, menacingly watchable.
Likewise Andrea Riseborough's Rose is simply the soaraway success
of this - brilliantly fragile, stupidly naïve and yet
endlessly optimistic, she sums up much of the uncertainty of youth
- and in the final scenes she will break your heart.
The problem with this Brighton Rock is it's a little slow to get
going; and with the darkness pervading the script as well as the
onscreen action, some may not be willing to give it the time to let
it wash over them and get engrossed.
Extras: A packed second disc with makings of, commentary with
director, interviews with the cast, anatomy of a scene - a decent
bunch for consumption
Rating: 6/10
