MR. IN-BETWEEN
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Beautifully filmed, this is perhaps the best
English gangster film since THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY. It is
sharp as a stiletto, entirely etched in tones of blue and
black. A hit man gets involved in the lives of an old
friend and his wife. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), low +3 (-4 to +4)
This is the best British gangster film since THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY. Jon Bennet (played by Andrew Howard) is an extremely good assassin. As such he is probably an evil man but it does not worry him. He has become an unquestioning weapon. He is in the employ of a kingpin (David Calder) far more evil than he is. But even assassins have innocent pasts. He runs into an old from school days and he is married to a mutual girl friend from school. Complicating matters is that they live near where he had a recent job and their young daughter may have seen him at the crime.
A big piece of what makes this film work is the depiction of the kingpin. Calder is a familiar actor in Britain, though not frequently seen in the US. He was seen in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. Here he creates one of the best screen villains in recent years. He is at once seductive and repellent like a beautiful venomous snake. His lair is underground, apparently in a sewer, where he lives like the king of sewer rats. It is the kingpin who pulls the strings that will control Bennet's life.
Paul Sarossy who directs spent most of his career as a cinematographer and like the kingpin's lair, he has molded images of class and style out of the darkness. By using semi-darkness and letting the colors of deep blue and black dominate every scene he makes the film visually as ominous as anything in this nether world. This is a world that is cold and unfriendly.
Sorossy creates a world of violence much more by what we hear than what we see. This is a film with a great deal of physical violence occurring just out of reach. We see very little but we hear a great deal more and we imagine more than that.
The screenplay is by Peter Waddington based on the novel by Neil Cross, but it is Sarossy's film all the way. It creates indelible images of evil. I rate it an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale. (I do hope they do not use the tagline "Don't mess with Mr. In-between.")
Mark R. Leeper
markrleeper@yahoo.com
Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 29805 X-Language: en X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 8/10
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