Harry Brown

Contrary to the popular idiom, it turns out that revenge is a dish best served old. At least, that's how Harry Brown (both the movie and the character it's named after) sees it. 77-year-old British thesp Michael Caine tears a hole through the seedy underbelly of a British drug ring in this visceral vengeance thriller that crackles with bloody intensity. Harry Brown is a seemingly mild-mannered widow and war veteran whose best moments are now spent sitting over a chess board across from his weary pal Len (David Bradley).

But things change when Len grows tired of a nasty gang of misfits and chooses to take matters into his own hands by confronting the hoodlums. Disaster reigns and Harry is devastated to find one more piece of his crumbling life robbed from him. Frustrated by a police force that borders on useless, Harry does what Len could not. He nabs a cachet of weapons and rains holy hell down upon the villains. It's standard vigilante fare on the surface, but director Daniel Barber does a good job of keeping the narrative from slipping off the edge of reality.

Caine plays Harry with juicy juxtaposition entirely in focus. He is both an aging man clinging to what he has left (which is very little, beyond a tidy apartment and a few routine trips to the pub) and a fiery soul unafraid to step over the line of moral obligation. We know only a few things about Harry and the shreds of information that are provided are delivered through carefully tuned dialogue. There are no flashbacks to Harry's past, no long, drawn-out explanations of his personal history, but we know all that is necessary to accept Harry's internal conflict.

Barber and screenwriter Gary Young prey on the chilly simplicity of the narrative to pack their purpling punch. Harry Brown never stretches beyond the possibilities of a basic vigilante thriller to discover anything new, but there is such an undeniable strength in the way that the protagonist exacts revenge that it is difficult not to feel shaken by the movie's violent energy. Caine is completely convincing at every turn and watching him transform from broken individual into cold-blooded killing machine is exhilarating stuff.

What is interesting about Harry's dramatic arc, though, is that the aforementioned transformation is frighteningly less drastic than it first appears. Harry has always been capable of this brand of ruthless murder, but he's kept that side of him hidden away for so long that it's become a wandering shadow that haunts his steps. He is only willing to adopt the role of judge, jury, and executioner once he feels his hand has been forced.

Harry has been avoiding this sort of gun-blazing retribution, but now he has nothing left to lose and no one left to answer to. It is important to grasp that Harry is not a vigilante feeling his way through the role, learning as he goes. This deadly monster has lurked within him for a long time, living in tandem with his lighter, more hopeful side. Caine sells this complexity in every scene, which makes his titular character a fascinating man to watch, someone pushed to the brink and now pushing back.

Like all vigilante movies do, Harry Brown feels the ache of sensible necessity that arrives in the form of a subplot focused on law enforcement officials. This time around, there are two detectives (played by Emily Mortimer and Charlie Creed-Miles) who are tasked to investigate the escalating situation that boils at the movie's core. As is the norm in these movies, the police prove to be mostly powerless in their quest to quash the drug ring and they begin to suspect the identity of the vigilante killer. It's an obvious path for the story to take, but it is a nearly unavoidable extension of the plot.

Harry's actions simply cannot be ignored by those whose job he is subverting. Young and Barber see no way around the subplot, so they choose to embrace it, increasing the participation of the cop characters and melding their fates with that of Harry himself. While it's nice to see writer and director venture forward with confidence, the movie never quite regains its icy intensity once the focus is blurred. Harry is forced to share the spotlight and the cop characters are never interesting enough to warrant the widening of scope.

The movie's other fault is how it falls into the trap of so many vigilante thrillers by making the villains pure, unadulterated evil. They're soulless beasts that are more vermin than remotely realized characters. Of course, the point is to drain the terrible bad guys of any and all humanity to the point that killing them in cold blood seems suddenly morally just. But by making the villains such a pillar of disgusting depravity (some of them videotape a civilian shooting from the back of a dirt bike, while another illustrates his dark side by smoking crack through the barrel of a gun), Harry's journey loses some of its emotional resonance.

Barber and Young would have been better off not spending so much time lingering on the evil qualities of the villains and focusing further on the ethically convoluted qualities of their hero. But these complaints plague most vigilante movies and Harry Brown deserves far more credit than the average vengeance thriller. The visual composition is hauntingly beautiful, every shot an incisive image of precise power. Cinematographer Martin Ruhe eloquently evokes a grimy, gloomy world bathed in browns and greys. It's an ugly world, but there's an energy to the imagery that pulls us in.

At the centre of the narrative, occupying the title and providing the best moments, is Michael Caine. His performance is rough and gentle all at once, switching from cold to warm with a single glance or exquisitely delivered line. His Harry Brown is a fascinating man whose whole history stretches out behind him, unseen but entirely felt. Harry has been beaten down by old age, but he hasn't been broken.

Caine's performance acknowledges the constraints of his elderly frame, while still making his scenes of bloody massacre entirely believable. Young has written a very good script, even if it does dip a little too deeply into the well of cliché by story's end. Barber's direction is impressively muscular and he has put together a wiry little movie with a lot of kick. At times, Harry Brown may feel a little familiar, but thanks to the contributions of actor, writer, and director, it packs a lot of personality and reminds us that revenge, in all its harrowing hurt, is ageless.