Violence At Film Club

Frankenkeith and Shazzerooneypoos joined us at Millbrooker Towers last night for film club and didn't get up to any shenanigans on the sofa to raise Dong's ire and threats of death by tray. (See Dong's comment on the last film club night that he missed).

Cinema Paradiso (we get our films from them these days after getting well and truly fed up with the dire Love Film) supplied us with Paul Andrew Williams' 2006 drama London to Brighton.

The plot concerns a street prostitute, Kelly (played by Lorraine Stanley) and her ill fated attempt to rescue an eleven year old runaway from child prostitution (Georgia Groome as Joanne) , and worse. It's an unremittingly grim and seedy tale peppered with moments of violence (nothing exceptionally graphic, but quite disturbing). Probably not one to watch with mother.Lorraine Stanley's central performance and that of Johnny Harris as her low-life, low-rent pimp rivet your attention; Georgia Groome provides a more than decent performance and there is plenty of quality acting in support.

The issues tackled are familiar territory for drama, but the central point of the film is the burgeoning relationship between Kelly and Joanne which is portrayed with a slightly lighter touch than the rest of the film during which Paul Andrew Williams (writer/director) uses low level camera angles and unforgiving facial close ups to good effect to provide a sense of menace and overall ugliness.

Overall, though, opinion within the film club coterie was split. Mrs The Millbrooker found it thought provoking (to say anyone would enjoy this film is going a bit far considering its subject matter). Frankenkeith's comment was that he didn't understand the point of making it. I fall somewhere between the two. Films of this nature are important beasts and need to be out there, but this one didn't really seem to explore anything that's not been covered before in any way that improved on its predecessors.

Williams has made a quality film that somehow left me feeling unfulfilled by its outcome and unconvinced by its plotline. According to imbd this film has lots of fans, but I don't think I can be counted amongst them despite its import and its excellent central performances.