Joseph (Peter Mullan), a widower, drinks too much and kills his dog in a fit of rage… but a blossoming friendship with a Christian woman (Olivia Colman) could change his life. Actor Paddy Considine’s feature directing debut is an expansion of his 2007 short film Dog Altogether and offers the expected range of British working-class misery. However, as in so many predecessors one is drawn into it because of the credibility and compassion. We do get under the skin of a human being few of us would like to know in real life and we end up caring very much for him as well as the lady whose marriage turns out to be hell. Above all, this is an unsentimental story about abused women.
2011-Britain. 91 min. Color. Produced by Diarmid Scrimshaw. Written and directed by Paddy Considine. Cast: Peter Mullan (Joseph), Olivia Colman (Hannah), Eddie Marsan (James), Ned Dennehy, Sally Carman, Samuel Bottomley.
Last word: “I live in a state of hypersensitivity, and I’ve always had this feeling that something bad is going to happen to myself, or my wife and children. This manifests itself in different fears and visions. It’s no fun, but I’m able to deal with it better now, and making this film felt like a kind of exorcism. I have to believe there’s redemption in the darkest of circumstances; otherwise it’s too bleak for me. What I love about ‘Tyrannosaur’ is that this redemption doesn’t come in an obvious form.” (Considine, The Guardian)
