Film: Dir. Paul Andrew Williams - London to Brighton

Dir. Paul Andrew Williams
London to Brighton
[ Drama ]





Recent British gangster films have left a lot to be desired, offering up an increasingly sleek, clean and day-glo depiction of London's criminal underworld as seen by executive producers in swanky apartments. Famous examples Snatch and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels really do take the crafty Cockney stereotype to appalling extremes and, as if to compound the misery, I recently learned that Guy Ritchie actually does take himself seriously as a filmmaker. Yes, despite missing the obvious irony of casting wannabe tough guy Vinnie Jones, recent interviews with Ritchie about his latest film Revolver see him explaining how the colours of the spectrum represent different characters and other equally fascinating reasons why critics don't get him. On the non-Ritchie front, things look pretty bleak too; Layer Cake, and Green Street both envision London the way that Richard Curtis and Cameron Diaz might if they sat down for a midday moccha on Oxford Street.

It comes as a pleasant surprise, then, that London to Brighton almost manages to capture the blood-soaked, sweat-sodden underworld of our glorious capital without slipping into unintentional self-parody. Of course, there's excessive facking to be heard, and some scenes do fall narrowly short of the intended toughness. That said, with themes of prostitution, paedophilia, rape and drug abuse, could it really fail?

Paul Andrew Williams tells his story with a compelling mix of real-time action and flashback sequences running in a non-chronological, sometimes random order. I personally don't mind this technique (I even enjoyed the almost farcical time sequencing in The Grudge), though I can appreciate that some viewers may not find it to their taste. Worry not, however, because the story is a relatively simple tale of deals gone wrong and victims on the run, told through the eyes of abused prostitute Kelly (Lorraine Stanley) and her doey-eyed comrade Joanne (Georgia Groome).

In a nutshell, Kelly's boss's boss has something of an alternative sexual appetite and is in need of a younger girl to satisfy his needs. Kelly dutifully tricks twelve-year-old Joanne into being that girl and, as the opening scene suggests, the meeting might not have gone quite as planned. We encounter Kelly and Joanne in a public lavatory, panicking and shouting and conspiring to escape London as quickly as possible. Kelly leaves a horrified Joanne alone in a toilet while she heads off to acquire money for a train to Brighton and, before you know it, the pair are in the station and heading for apparent safety.

What makes this opening five minutes so outstanding is its complete, unabashed realism. The cubicle is a visible haven of filth, emphasised by the shaky handheld camera now typical of the European indie flick. Stanley actually looks like a prostitute and Groome is similarly convincing as the traumatised kid. The pair even enjoy a tray of chips that look revolting in the way that only lukewarm, under-cooked takeaway food can. Though Stanley and Groome's anonymity in the acting world certainly lends the scene added weight it is, regardless, an exceptional piece of film-making.

Kelly and Laura share traumas, memories and cigarettes aplenty throughout the rest of the film, but London to Brighton struggles to recapture the frantic mood of that potentially iconic opening scene. That said, Williams injects satisfying levels of additional violence and horror to ensure the momentum of the film remains pretty brutal.

During more reflective, dialogue-heavy moments (almost exclusively between the two women), the acting is just about restrained enough to be believable. Stanley occasionally results to unnecessary melodrama as she wrestles with her conscience and muses tearfully on the chaos unfolding around her, however these instances are rare and only feature in circumstances where overacting could be considered forgivable.

Another minor complaint regards the ending which, while depressingly real for certain characters is dreadfully predictable and completely unsatisfying for others.

On the whole, London to Brighton is a rough, tough and often thought-provoking contemporary drama. It is one of the most impressive documents of twenty-first century London (on a par with Kidulthood) and will hopefully serve as useful point of reference in the same way that Scum managed for borstals in the 1970s. Though occasionally prone to the odd stereotype - Kelly's pimp Derek (Johnny Harris) is the typically soft-on-the-inside Mockney rogue - the acting performances are commendable and bring Williams' unsettling vision into fruition. Never easy, occasionally shallow and often harrowing, London to Brighton is a step in the right direction for the British gangster movie. 75