Film Review - Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

Filmfour is ace. i watched Dead Man's Chest as my first free film, below is the review, it's repeated a fair few times over the next week if you wanna goosey gander.

Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

Vital Statistics
Genre
Drame/Thriller

Director(s)
Shane Meadows

Writer(s)
Paddy Considine & Shane Meadows

Starring
Paddy Considine
Gary Stretch
Toby Kebbell

Review
Can someone please tell Shane Meadows that the British film industry is dead; apparently he hasn’t heard as Dead Man’s Shoes is one hell of a film and more than that - it is a very British film.

Paddy Considine plays Richard, a former British soldier out for revenge for the way his simple minded brother was treated at the hands of some small time druggies. So far it doesn’t read to be much different than the majority of Hollywood revenge films, but it is. Dead Man’s Shoes is set in a rural English town and the ‘bad guys’ drive around in a cramped and very old VW Beetle. Do not take this description to mean that this is a Sunday afternoon stroll type of British film, this is no Last of the Summer Wine, it is often brutal and has an 18 rating for a reason. This is Britain’s version of an American small town revenge thriller - but it trumps almost anything that Hollywood has produced in the ‘revenge thriller’ genre in recent years.

Paddy Considine, starring in a film penned by himself and Shane Meadows, puts in a performance easily on par with any Oscar contender. Considine portrays his character with an emotion and viciousness rarely seen; he is almost the whole film and without his gruff, vengeful depiction the film undoubtedly would not be as good as it is. That said the supporting cast are, on the whole, excellent but the presence felt by Considine is impressive and missed when he is absent to the extent that the screen almost feel smaller when he is not there.

Under the confident direction of Shane Meadows, what could have been another revenge flick turns into something quite special. With a great meandering soundtrack to boot there is very little to dislike about this film, the main issue is with the casts strong accents, understanding what they say is not easy - and the bloody violence is never to everyone’s taste.

Dead Man’s Shoes is not just British filmmaking at its best, but simply filmmaking at its best. Films don’t come much better.

4 1/2stars

Trivia
Paddy Considine won the Empire Award for Best British Actor but wasn’t even nominated for a BAFTA in a year where no British Actor was nominated for a leading actor award - talk about celebrating British film. Although it was nominated for Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film it lost to My Summer of Love