London Boulevard

Screenwriter William Monahan’s directorial debut London Boulevard is a gritty little film that makes the most of its fairly standard storyline. Colin Farrell starts as Mitchell, a recently released prisoner, who in trying to go straight is thwarted by the actions of his old friends and enemies in the criminal fraternity and his hard to suppress desire to be back in with the bad boys. This is pretty much the outline of all recently released prisoner story lines in books, TV series or films. However, feelings of over familiarity are just about overcome by a series of decent performances, though there are quite a few caricatures on show. This film is pretty much the Farrell show as he’s in virtually every scene. He does a good job showing Mitchell’s struggle to live a normal life against his tendency to resort to violence to solve problems as quickly as possible. Though this is good stuff by Farrell, he does spend a lot of the film just looking moody and it doesn’t really capture why just the mention of his name has people running for cover. The rest of the mainly Irish and British cast pop up every now and then throughout the story and the actors and actresses limited screen time means each doesn’t have that long to make their mark on the film. For some it works, for others it doesn’t. Anna Friel and Ben Chaplin are good as Mitchell’s sister and ex-criminal partner, respectively. Eddie Marsan is great as a bent copper, but his minimal screen time is a disappointment. Ray Winstone is also wasted as an East End gangster who Monahan just has swearing a lot (though Winstone still provides the needed gravitas) and, despite being second billing, Keira Knightley brings nothing to the show as a washed out actress. They say criminals only end up in two places, the prison or the morgue. Monahan’s film doesn’t deviate from that at any point and despite the screenplay plodding along at times, and a somewhat cruel ending, his direction is pretty much on the mark throughout and he gets great performances from a number of his actors.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Nothing new here, but this is well acted and even has a number of laughs amid the grimness. Rating: 6/10.