vWv124's Tiny Beam of Light

Almost unbelievable that Sir Michael Caine is still a movie star at the age of 76, and it’s great to see him continue to put his star power behind smallish British films such as ‘Is Anyone There?’ (2008) (which I also liked) and now ‘Harry Brown’ – the debut feature film from director Daniel Barber (who was nominated for an Oscar for a short – which I’ll have to check out).

Michael Caine is Harry Brown, a man who lives alone on a London council estate where youth gangs intimidate and kill without fear of any consequences for their actions, but a sequence of events pushes Harry into obtaining a gun…

There is pretty much one word that describes this film: grim. But it’s a grim good movie and Michael Caine shines in the role, and unlike some Hollywood treatments of vigilantism, the whole thing is horribly believable. Harry doesn’t have super fighting prowess – he’s an old man who can barely run down the street. The story is simply and effectively told and the whole cast is uniformly good, especially Ben Drew as the gang leader, and it’s always great to see Iain Glen on the screen. For those Americans out there used to the Hugh Grant/Notting Hill style of London, this will be a bit of a shock.