Film Reviews

Green Street

• Rating:
• Director: Lexi Alexander
• Starring: Charlie Hunnam
• Details: US / UK / 109 mins (18s).

"It's not about knowing your friends have your back," says tyro football hooligan Matt Buckner (Wood), "it's about knowing you've got theirs." First a yellow-faced cannibal in Sin City, now a West Ham lager lout - if there was any danger Elijah Wood might be typecast as a hobbit, it's long gone now. When journalism student Matt gets framed for cocaine possession at Harvard, he takes off to London to see his sister Shannon (Claire Forlani), there to get mixed up with West Ham's infamous 'firm' - a gang of hooligans who delight in brutal brawls with the supporters of other football teams. There's a Fight Club element to Green Street that lifts it above similar stories, as Matt learns to identify with a group led by his new mate Pete (Hunnam) - although Pete's second-in-command, the surly thug Bover (Gregory), doesn't repay the compliment. Will ex-student Matt come to understand that it's more important to live life than it is to write about it? Or will his journalism catch up with him before he can escape his past? Director Lexi Alexander sustains a cracking pace throughout, the fight scenes are neatly choreographed, and Wood is surprisingly convincing as a half-pint hooligan. Unfortunately, just as the movie should be hitting its climax, Alexander decides to pad things out with unnecessary exposition, slowing the pace to the extent that the story ends with a gentle bump rather than the crash-and-burn it really deserved.

Review by Declan Burke