HE’S IN ALL OF US.
Former paratrooper Richard (Paddy Considine) arrives in his home town in the Midlands where he immediately begins to exact revenge on those who harmed his mentally handicapped kid brother. Director Shane Meadows based the script on a similar event from his youth in the West Midlands town of Uttoxeter, and I’m certain that he also watched Straw Dogs (1971) once or twice before filming began. As a revenge saga, the story sets out on a very familiar path but gets a shot in the arm from Considine’s dynamic performance as a different sort of Rambo, a sense of humor in the portrayal of his revenge… and a final tragic twist that explains his motivations.
2004-Britain. 90 min. Color. Produced by Mark Herbert. Directed by Shane Meadows. Screenplay: Shane Meadows, Paddy Considine. Cast: Paddy Considine (Richard), Gary Stretch (Sonny), Toby Kebbell (Anthony), Jo Hartley, Seamus O’Neill, Stuart Wolfenden.
Last word: “What attracted me to many of those films was that their central characters were almost like spokesmen for the dark recesses of our own minds. Me and Paddy had a conversation about road rage, which I admit I suffer from. I’ve been in a car where somebody’s cut me up and I’ve seriously wanted to follow them, pull out an axe, cut their vehicle into pieces and say, ‘Well, you’ll never do that again, now will you?!’ What actually happens is that I smile, put my hand up and drive home with all these poisonous thoughts running around in my brain. But at least I admit to those thoughts.” (Meadows on the violent films that inspired this one, The Guardian)
