TIFF 2009: Harry Brown

Michael Caine plays Harry Brown, a retired widower living in a bad neighbourhood overrun by drug gangs. And then his friend gets hurt. And then he starts killing gang members. And then the cops get involved. That’s what I felt like when I was watching this movie… it was just a sequence of plot events. I never got a sense of the characters’ motivations and justifications for their actions. The characters were only there to move the plot along, and I didn’t care about them at all.

For example, there’s one scene where the police detective (played by Emily Mortimer) suddenly goes from being confused about the situation to being completely convinced that she’s solved the case, all based on what I think was a very vague piece of evidence. Up to that point, she was portrayed as a fair and thoughtful detective, but then abruptly jumps to a conclusion, only because that’s what was needed for the movie to set up its climax.

Overall, it was a disappointment. That being said, there are some moments of suspense that did work well, e.g., the scene where Harry goes to buy a gun from some nasty people. And Michael Caine delivers my favourite one-liner from the festival so far. After a shootout with a bad guy, he stands victoriously over his injured opponent and says: “You failed to maintain your weapon, son.” Brilliant.

2 out of 5