In the opening scene of Harry Brown, two hoodlums riding a scooter circle a helpless mother and infant like sharks, firing a gun aimlessly and cackling until a bullet strikes the woman. As the uncaring pair flees the scene, a truck slams into the thugs, spilling more needless blood onto the filthy streets.
The first feature of director Daniel Barber dwells in the bleak underbelly of Britain, a raw, gritty reality of inept authority and rampant injustice. The housing estate has descended into a lawless slum where juvenile criminals deal drugs in the open and assemble as a vicious gang confidently in the square.
Living amidst the crime is Harry Brown (Michael Caine), an ex-Marine and widower too frightened to use the tunnel by his home. Brown turns a defenseless shoulder to the conditions until his elderly friend Leonard (David Bradley) is stabbed to death with the bayonet he was carrying for protection. A sympathetic detective (Emily Mortimer) is turned away as Brown’s mourning turns to rage.
Resolving to properly arm himself, Brown visits a seedy marijuana grow house where scum boast about their readily available drugs and black market weaponry. Caine is masterful in this scene as his expressions intensify from intimidated to disgusted to Brown’s breaking point. It’s as if he surprises even himself with an outburst of brutal violence, finally taking matters into his own hands.
Tensions in the area escalate into an uncontrollable riot as Brown’s own fury boils over, and he sets out for vengeance on the gang leader (a chilling Ben Drew). However, Brown isn’t the typical Death Wish vigilante or indestructible hero. At 77 years old, Caine is still capable of playing a steely bad ass, but his gripping turn is rooted in a conflicted everyman vulnerability that makes his pensioner-pushed-too-far character more believable and relatable.
Barber’s Harry Brown transcends the revenge thriller formula with its bold, tough style and a powerful Gran Torino-like performance from Sir Michael Caine.
4 out of 5.
