Film Reviews

Bronson

• Rating:
• Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
• Starring: Tom Hardy
• Details: UK / 92mins (18).

Those thinking of trundling along to see this biopic of notorious British gangster Michael Peterson – AKA Charlie Bronson – won't be in it for plot or anything resembling the film narrative we're used to. Instead the viewers are treated to a series of sequences (most of which take place in various prisons and mental institutions) played out by what is basically a one-man show. Born, as he admits, to a respectful family in Wales, Bronson grew up a brawler and was sent down in 1974 for a botched robbery. Save a few months here and there, Bronson has been in prison ever since - 30 of which spent in solitary confinement. Bronson penchant for violence and hostage taking has given him the reputation as Britain's most violent criminal. Kubrick and Chopper fans will get a bang out of Bronson: Refn's direction screams A Clockwork Orange and Hardy's performance reminds one of Eric Bana in Andrew Domink's Chooper; switching from humour to sadistic violence at the drop of a hat (and sometimes mixing the two), Bronson and Mark Brandon Read are peas in a pod. A buff Tom Hardy is an absolute powerhouse as Bronson, channelling Daniel Day Lewis at his tense best and Ray Winstone's Carling. Despite these comparisons, however, Refn manages to make Bronson it's own animal by delivering the unexpected. The opening scene sets the tone of the film: as Bronson - dirty, bloody and coiled at the bottom of a cage - waits patiently for the prison guards, the music isn't something that would signal threat - it's The Walker Brothers's downbeat The Electrician, and just as it hits its mournful chorus Bronson explodes into a ballet of slow motion violence. Beautiful.

Review by Gavin Burke