London To Brighton (2006)

 

Written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams

Crime drama starring Lorraine Stanley and Georgia Groome. A prostitute and her underage charge flee for their lives from the London underworld when a sleazy assignation results in the death of a wealthy gangster.

In lesser hands (say Guy Ritchie) this story of London, prostitution, pimps, paedophilia and gangsters would be an unholy mess - a random selection of paper thin characters talking a barely recognisable language with moments of ulta-violence to satisfy the bloodlusty in the audience.

It's to Paul Andrew Williams' eternal credit that he manages to avoid this simple route and, instead, create a film that attempts to look below the surface of so many tired mockney gangster films of recent years and create a believable world where the characters could actually live and, even better, make us care about their lives.

The basis of the film is the desperate flight from London of career prostitute Kelly (the outstanding Lorraine Stanley) and twelve year old runaway Joanne (an astonishing turn from Georgia Groome). They are pursued by Kelly's pimp Derek (Johnny Harris) who is, in turn, anxious to avoid the attentions of gangsters son Stuart Allen (Sam Spruell)

Williams uses as his the starting point the beginning of the women's journey, no reason for their plight is immediately obvious, being revealed in flashback as the film unwinds.

The flashback scenes are the less interesting part of the film, being fairly standard demi-monde activities filmed in a flat style until we get to the central act which preciptates the action, when there is a sudden use of an impressionistic style that renders the awful images even more potent.

There are some beautifully written moments where we are reminded of the Joanne character's extreme youth. Arriving at Brighton beach she suddently reverts to childhood, skipping down the beach towards the sea squealing with pleasure and later she indulges the universal childhood waste-of-money, the desperate attempt to win a stuffed toy from a claw machine.

And an arresting visual metaphor in the scene where the two, sat outside a beachside cafe and having finished drinking their tea from styrofoam cups, let the cups go and watch as they are taken by the wind and blown in random sequence along the promenade. Lost in events and unable to control their destiny, just like the central characters.

It's tight running time of 85 minutes ensures that the plot never slips or sags, every scene is vital to the progression of the story and not a minute is wasted.

There are echoes of recent superior British gangster films - Gangster Number One and, of course, The Long Good Friday - but underpinning the whole story is a warmth and affection for the central characters that prevent "London To Brighton" slipping into cliche or becoming (as too many recent entrys in this area have) nothing more than an extended version of a "gritty" television drama.

Thoroughly recommended.