Sam Riley and Andrea Riseborough in Brighton Rock

2 Stars

In mediocrity lies opportunity. The new film version of Graham Greene's 1938 novel "Brighton Rock" isn't very good, but if you haven't yet seen the 1947 film version of Greene's book, do so! It's the right time.

It's sharp and pungent and worthwhile for reasons beginning with, but hardly limited to, a 23-year-old Richard Attenborough's portrayal of the sadistic thug Pinkie Brown, whose haunted vision of damnation, redemption and what lies in between, in the English seaside town of Brighton, drives Greene's novel.

The weirdly becalmed latest screen version relocates the gangster action from the late '30s to 1964, when youth riots were turning England upside down and the old pre- and post-war wallpaper was peeling fast.

Sam Riley, who played Ian Curtis of Joy Division in the film "Control," takes on the teenage Pinkie (though Riley is north of 30). The character's calculated romance with a timid Brighton lass played by Andrea Riseborough is merely an attempt to purloin a piece of evidence she's holding, unknowingly, that can keep Pinkie and his gang of murderous upstarts away from the gallows.

What works here? The time shift, up to a point, is viable; having the unstable social order reflect Pinkie's psyche, rather than contrast it, is certainly a choice. The supporting actors, had they been given a director deploying a surer sense of rhythm and style, have the stuff. A ruddy-haired Helen Mirren plays wised-up Ida, determined to bring down Pinkie, since no one else seems able. John Hurt, never Mr. Subtlety, is nonetheless a welcome, salty presence. And Riseborough holds the screen, even though she's playing a schematic Catholic dilemma rather than a flesh-and-blood "good girl" tempted by the darkness that is Pinkie. (Even Greene admitted the character of Rose "obstinately refused to come alive" on the page.)

Regarding what does not work:

First-time feature director Rowan Joffe, working from his own script adaptation, appears to be guessing at his effects and pacing. By glamorizing Pinkie -- we get many shots of Riley on a Vespa, looking cool, as opposed to looking chilling -- the film loses both its moral compass and a sense of energy. Riley seems stuck in second gear the entire picture. And composer Martin Phipps weighs the film down with an intrusive butt-insky of a string-heavy score. He may have taken his cue from Greene's reference in the novel to the "sorrowful" violin Pinkie hears along the boardwalk. But it soon swamps the soundtrack, and although Joffe appears to be making a Brighton version of the seductively natty evil we find stateside in "Boardwalk Empire," this "Brighton Rock" remains muffled, half-formed pulp fiction.

 

MPAA rating: NR (violence, language, some sexual material).

Running time: 1:51.

Cast: Sam Riley (Pinkie); Andrea Riseborough (Rose); Helen Mirren (Ida); John Hurt (Phil); Nonso Anozie (Dallow); Andy Serkis (Colleoni).

Credits: Written and directed by Rowan Joffe, based on the novel by Graham Greene; produced by Paul Webster. An IFC Films release.

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Brighton Rock Movie Review | Sam Riley and Andrea Riseborough