This is England (2006)

As it so often does, it took me a long time to get round to seeing this. In fact, it even took terrestrial TV. This was the first vaguely interesting thing on on Film 4 for months, so I settled down a few weeks ago for a hopefully entertaining night absorbed in a supposedly excellent (for once) British film.

Sadly, as with many British films, this doesn't cut the (English) Mustard. It's not far away but ultimately suffers from that great pitfall that befalls so many films, whether English or not, the dreaded ending. This is England is a prime example of how an interesting and largely very enjoyable film can be so diminished in effectiveness and enjoyment by its ending. A great shame.

Anwyay, This is England focuses on young Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), who is taken under the wing of local hard man and petty criminal Woody and his gang. Everything goes swimmingly, and Shaun is able to forge a number of important relationships until Woody's old friend, Combo, comes out of prison. Combo (Stephen Graham) has a much nastier side to him than all the others in the gang - he is a racist with ties to the national front. As the gang splits apart, which side will Shaun take and why?

This is a powerful film. How could it not be, given the subject matter? Well, I can think of a number of films with hard-hitting subject matter that are not all that powerful. Subject-matter alone is not enough, it has to be handled well (a la American History X, to chose a relevant example) and director Shane Meadows does, largely, handle it well. One scene in particular where a genuinely terrifying Turgoose confronts a local Asian shopkeeper. It is a brilliant scene with high-impact value and represents the film at its absolute, effective, zenith. Sadly, it's all largely down hill from this great pinnacle.

Meadows is aided by some excellent performances. Turgoose is startling good and delivers the kind of powerhouse performance someone of his tender years should simply not be capable of. There is also a great balance of chemistry in his relationships with Woody, played by Joe Gilgun, the film's best and most effective performer, and the charmingly amusing Smell, beautifully drawn by the effervescent and bubbly Rosamund Hanson. Andrew Shim also delivers a subtle and neatly understated performance as Milky, the sole Afro-Carribean kid involved in the group. And Graham is suitably terrifying, disturbed and conflicted as the violent racist. Meadows deserves great credit for moulding and shaping all of these performances into a very effective, coherent and realistic whole.

It's really just the ending that lets this down, but it lets it down badly. It's rushed through, detatched and utterly fails to land the knockout blow the action had been leading to as a result, that even despite a shimmering, almost Hitchcockian, level of tension and suspense building in the last full scene. It's a great disappointment. In reality, the previous hour or so deserved a lot lot more. A real shame.

Still, this is an intruiging, watchable and well-drawn film well worth investing an evening in. Lest we forget, the violence depicted in the film's most hard hitting and demanding scenes, and the messages that connect to and create it, is still endemic on British streets. Racism is not dead. And that is a message central to the film and one each and every one of us needs to be reminded of again and again until it finally and eventually does become obsolete.

B-