Brighton Rock
Village East Cinema, September 13, 2011
Movie #67 for 2011
Adapted from Graham Greene’s novel, Pinkie Brown (SAM RILEY who was so good as Ian Curtis in Control) is a young, small time racketeer in 1960s Brighton. A bigger, better funded, more organized gang is moving in, upping the violence and the uncertainty for Pinkie and his boys. When Pinkie kills rival gang member Fred Hale (SEAN HARRIS, who was so good as Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People) and then one of his own (PHIL DAVIS, Vera Drake), Rose (ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, Made in Dagenham, pictured with Riley) is an eyewitness and could get Pinkie and his gang hanged. But she has fallen for Pinkie and Pinkie, after a fashion, has fallen for her. Along the way, Ida (HELEN MIRREN), who is is Rose's boss and an old flame of Fred’s, gets involved, determined to make Pinkie suffer.
I understood very little of this film. I mean, I had a handle on what was happening, I just didn’t understand much of why. Motivations are murky or non-existent. Pinkie is a psychopath without evidence of the torment that he alludes to, and without the charm or charisma that might make him attractive to an unhinged girl like Rose, who again is somewhat unfathomable. The film hints at inner workings and deeper characterization, but I suspect that’s more the actors doing their best than the adaptation being any good.
As well as failing the inner lives of Greene’s characters, writer/director ROWAN JOFFE (who also wrote The American, a film I enjoyed despite its unfortunate screenplay) has taken a bunch of liberties with the story, including transplanting it 30 years from the late 1930s for an undetermined reason.
As a first time director, Joffe never seems really comfortable. It feels like he’s still figuring out how to use the cameras to capture images, rather then to draw out characters and tell a story. It detracts somewhat from the overall effect.
Brighton Rock is an uncomfortable experience. It should be uncomfortable because of the brutality of Greene’s story, but is rather because of Joffe’s written and directorial awkwardness.
