Brighton Rock (2010 film)
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Brighton Rock | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Rowan Joffé |
Produced by | Paul Webster |
Screenplay by | Rowan Joffé |
Based on | Brighton Rock by Graham Greene |
Starring | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> |
Music by | Martin Phipps |
Cinematography | John Mathieson |
Edited by | Joe Walker |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Optimum Releasing |
Release dates
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Running time
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111 minutes[2] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $12 million[3] |
Box office | $1.8 million[3] |
Brighton Rock is a 2010 British crime film written and directed by Rowan Joffé and loosely based on Graham Greene's 1938 novel of the same name. The film stars Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Andy Serkis, John Hurt, Sean Harris and Helen Mirren.[4]
The novel had previously been made into a film under the same title by the Boulting brothers that premiered in 1948. Although the novel and original film are both set in the 1930s, the 21st century adaptation is set during the Mods and Rockers era of the 1960s.[5][6]
Sam Riley plays "Pinkie", the role originally played by Richard Attenborough. Filming began in October 2009. It was largely filmed in the nearby town of Eastbourne, with Eastbourne Pier standing in for Brighton Pier, and at Beachy Head. Some scenes were shot at Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire[7] and in Brighton itself.[7]
Plot
In 1964, Pinkie Brown, the sociopathic enforcer of a Brighton gang, murders Fred Hale, who had killed the gang leader Kite. Brown befriends Rose, a young waitress who witnessed the gang's activity, to keep an eye on her. She falls in love with him. To prevent her from being compelled to give evidence against him, he marries her. Ida, Rose's employer and a friend of Hale's, takes it upon herself to save the girl from the monster she has married.
Cast
- Sam Riley as Pinkie Brown
- Andrea Riseborough as Rose
- Andy Serkis as Mr Colleoni
- John Hurt as Phil Corkery
- Helen Mirren as Ida
- Sean Harris as Hale
- Phil Davis as Spicer
- Nonso Anozie as Dallow
- Craig Parkinson as Cubitt
- Steve Evets as Mr Wilson
- Maurice Roëves as Chief Inspector
Production
Rowan Joffé was originally uninterested in the project, which as first proposed was to be a remake of the film. After re-reading the novel, however, Joffé "fell absolutely in love with the character of Rose" and convinced the studio to let him adapt the novel directly.[8] Joffe later explained why he did his own adaptation of the novel:[8]
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The novel was worthy of a contemporary adaptation. In fact, it makes it almost more dutiful as a filmmaker if you love the novel, to bring it to life without the restriction of censorship. I mean, a lot of the Catholicism was cut out of the original film because they didn’t want to offend Catholics... there are aspects of the film where if critics were to be honest about, and few of them have been certainly in England, that the 1947 version is a rather tame adaptation and certainly fails to do justice to the character of Rose, because the original black and white was made in a period where we were culturally and politically very patronizing to women.
Apropos to the location, Pinkie kills Spicer by shoving a stick of Brighton rock candy down his throat.
Release
Brighton Rock premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010[9][10] and the BFI London Film Festival in October 2010.[11]
The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2011,[12] and in Australia on 14 April 2011.[13] In the United States, IFC Films released the film in August 2011, theatrically in New York City and Los Angeles,[14] and elsewhere via video-on-demand.[15]
Reception
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Brighton Rock received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that Lua error in Module:Rotten_Tomatoes_data at line 72: invalid escape sequence near '"^'. of Lua error in Module:Rotten_Tomatoes_data at line 72: invalid escape sequence near '"^'. critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of Lua error in Module:Rotten_Tomatoes_data at line 72: invalid escape sequence near '"^'.. The site's critics consensus reads: "Brighton Rock is a lean noir boasting an appealing trio of stars, but its old-fashioned presentation only reinforces how little it distinguishes itself from the superior original."[16] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a 57 based on 24 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17] According to Stephen Holden,[14] "Mr. Joffé has turned Brighton Rock into a full-scale film noir with the stylistic undertow of a more modern British gangster movie. As potentially lethal as the thugs may be, they are also slightly over-the-hill small-time bookies who seem anything but invincible, and the movie gives each a complicated personality. Andy Serkis is outstanding as the oily Colleoni, a smirking sybarite and crime lord with playboy airs." Holden notes "Mr. Riley, now 31, is a little too old to play a teenage gangster, and it throws the movie off somewhat. If Pinkie's recklessly impulsive behavior is that of a frightened teenager, Mr. Riley's slick hair, facial scar and cold, wide-eyed stare suggest a seasoned smoothie who has watched a lot more dirty water slosh under the bridge than any teenager could have witnessed." Nevertheless, Holden concludes "By discarding most of the theological debate [found in the book], the movie is no longer a passion play but a gritty and despairing noir. That’s good enough for me."
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Brighton Rock at Box Office Mojo
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- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.Lua error in Module:Rotten_Tomatoes_data at line 72: invalid escape sequence near '"^'.
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External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Brighton Rock at IMDb
- Brighton Rock at AllMovie
- Brighton Rock at Box Office Mojo
- Brighton Rock at Rotten Tomatoes
- Brighton Rock at Metacritic
- Brighton Rock: Rowan Joffe interview Archived 5 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine from BBC Films
- Articles with short description
- Use dmy dates from October 2020
- Articles with invalid date parameter in template
- Use British English from September 2012
- 2010 films
- English-language films
- Articles using small message boxes
- Webarchive template wayback links
- 2010 crime drama films
- 2010 crime thriller films
- British gangster films
- British crime drama films
- British thriller films
- British neo-noir films
- Films based on British novels
- Films based on works by Graham Greene
- Films set in 1964
- Films set in Brighton
- Films set in the 1960s
- Films shot in England
- Films shot in London
- Youth culture in the United Kingdom
- Films directed by Rowan Joffé
- BBC Film films
- StudioCanal films
- 2010 directorial debut films
- 2010s English-language films
- 2010s British films
- English-language crime drama films