David Jonsson stars in this brutish, British prison drama as a non-violent/accidental murderer who, thanks to over-crowding, gets a chance at early parole if he can keep his nose clean for the few weeks before his release date. (With that set-up, Diogenes couldn’t find anyone who doesn’t know where this is going.) Naturally, after getting this good news, he returns to new cellmate Tom Blyth, an ambitious sociopath working to grab the prison drug trade using drone deliveries of coke, heroin & weed flown to exterior transom windows. What could go wrong? No surprise, other/more established dealers are soon in his face and Jonsson’s inevitably drawn into the violence; finally blackmailed into agreeing to kill an aggressively violent rival dealer to protect his 14-yr-old son. (Blyth has connections on the outside.) Credit director Cal McMau and writers Hunter Andrews/Eoin Doran for ringing in a few changes on the usual pattern (the finale’s a pretty neat trick of misdirection), but it’s an uphill battle. Fortunately, Jonsson has an wonderfully expressive, empathetic face. If only they asked for a few more expressions! Always a bit stoned, his sleepy/wary/beaten up look a decreasingly effective fallback position. On the other hand, Blyth too obviously a graduate of the Robert De Niro School of Dramatic Intimidation making up for skipped classes.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For an ageless Hollywood take on the genre (and to see what’s missing here), Jules Dassin’s BRUTE FORCE/’47, with Burt Lancaster in his sophomore lead fronting an all-thug line up. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/brute-force-1947.html
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