The best things about Brighton Rock is Sam Railey and Andrea Riseborough. At first Railey's squeaky voice might put you off even entertaining the thought of him as the badass your rebellious inner 17-year-old teenager might fancy. It certainly doesn't help that Pinky (Sam Railey) gets pushed into the urinal at the beginning, thus making him look meek. But as the character develops and grows in confidence you might begin to imagine yourself as Rose (Andrea Riseborough), IF you have ever been hopelessly attracted to someone you shouldn't. Then you might, like Rose, conveniently disregard good and bad and just focus on love you think you can only get from the one person you know - Pinky. And he is very attractive after all. He gives you hope from your dreadful existence with a parent who'd sell you off as soon as he got the chance and another who is too posh to really care. By then you would realise that THE Rock in Brighton is Rose.
This is actually a good film if you care to see the nuances. You have a main character - Pinky the ambitious youthful thug who kneels in prayers midway of a chase by rival gang members. His youth echoes the 'youth riots' of the era the film was set in. You understand that his drive is about the youth being empowered. His ambition to be like his dead mentor with the baret and the photo of him like a child with his father begin to make you understand where he is coming from, sympathise with him for his background of depravity albeit the fact that he goes in a delusional and opportunistic way to be someone.
The casting is brilliant with the sexual chemistry between Pinky and Rose which enriches the film tremendously: 'I am bad, you are good and we are meant for each other' could be understood as a man who has resigned himself to his fate and a woman willing to pay the highest price for love.
The token non-Caucasian cast member, Nonso Anozie (Dallow) saves this from being relegated to just another all-white-filmfest of the not-a-single-non-white-nose King's Speech colour-blind genre.
The film is rather unsatisfactory in some aspects though. You never really understand why Ida was so vehement for vengeance for a murdered thug. The reveal of who she really was was also too casual.
But the final pan from the gramophone to the cross with the disk stuck at the words that leaves Rose continually in her belief resonates the best line in the film when Phil, Ida's partner delivers: 'Its amazes me that love.....' (or something to that effect). And that pan alone signs off Brighton Rock as a film really worth a watch.
This is actually a good film if you care to see the nuances. You have a main character - Pinky the ambitious youthful thug who kneels in prayers midway of a chase by rival gang members. His youth echoes the 'youth riots' of the era the film was set in. You understand that his drive is about the youth being empowered. His ambition to be like his dead mentor with the baret and the photo of him like a child with his father begin to make you understand where he is coming from, sympathise with him for his background of depravity albeit the fact that he goes in a delusional and opportunistic way to be someone.
The casting is brilliant with the sexual chemistry between Pinky and Rose which enriches the film tremendously: 'I am bad, you are good and we are meant for each other' could be understood as a man who has resigned himself to his fate and a woman willing to pay the highest price for love.
The token non-Caucasian cast member, Nonso Anozie (Dallow) saves this from being relegated to just another all-white-filmfest of the not-a-single-non-white-nose King's Speech colour-blind genre.
The film is rather unsatisfactory in some aspects though. You never really understand why Ida was so vehement for vengeance for a murdered thug. The reveal of who she really was was also too casual.
But the final pan from the gramophone to the cross with the disk stuck at the words that leaves Rose continually in her belief resonates the best line in the film when Phil, Ida's partner delivers: 'Its amazes me that love.....' (or something to that effect). And that pan alone signs off Brighton Rock as a film really worth a watch.