Film Reviews

Tyrannosaur

• Rating:
• Director: Paddy Considine
• Starring: Eddie Marsan
• Details: UK / 91mins (18).

When Gary Oldman wrote and directed Nil By Mouth in 1997 no one thought that his stark drama would be the last he called the shots on. Let's hope Paddy Considine doesn't disappear after this impressive debut.
Joseph (Mullan) is a nasty sort. An alcoholic who lives alone, we first meet him in a blind rage after he loses money to a bookie, a loss he brutally takes out on his dog, who he then has to put down due of the severity of the attack. Later, when he helps a woman recover from a beating dished out by her husband, he's asked, 'does it bring back some memories?' That woman is Hannah (Colman), a mousy religious sort who runs a charity shop; her vile husband is James (Marsan), a jealous man who likes to urinate on his wife as she sleeps on the couch. Being around Hannah, though, smoothes Joseph's rough edges and he has, at last, a chance to do something right…
It's grim up north again. Considine's Tyrannosaur is in the same world as Shane Meadows' films, the director he's worked with on A Room For Romeo Brass, Dead Man's Shoes and Le Donk And Skor-zay-zee. Tyrannosaur takes place in a world of dole queues, grey council flats, pubs with ripped seats and rubbish-strewn streets - you can almost smell the rising damp in Joseph's house. The film is ugly to look at but deliberately so. However, despite it being populated with bad people – across the street from Marsan, a bully threatens a little boy with a pitbull terrier – Considine looks for the warmth and the humanity under the violence and the cold. And he finds it in Joseph's hard-fought redemption.
Mullan, a terrific director in his own right (Neds), is a scary sight. On the verge of losing it at any moment, which he does, Joseph is a twitchy character who knows all too well what he is: "I'm not a nice human being," he warns Hannah when she comes too close. Colman, best known for her comic turn in Peep Show, is remarkable in an understated turn. Marsan, once again, turns in another blinding performance. No news there.
Grim and never easy to watch, Considine avoids the clichés of such a story with a surprising twist. Paddy, don't do a Gary.

Review by Gavin Burke