FILM

UK 2011 92 mins Dir: Paddy Considine Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan

How do you engage audience sympathy for a character who's introduced drunkenly kicking his own dog to death after an altercation with a 'c*nt' in a bookies? That's the challenge facing Paddy Considine's first feature as director. An expansion of his short film 'Dog Altogether', 'Tyrannosaur' is very much in the tradition of great homegrown actors' impressive if ultra-bleak directorial debuts (think Gary Oldman's 'Nil By Mouth', Tim Roth's 'The War Zone' or Peter Mullan's 'Orphans'). As one might expect, it's also an actors' movie, with compelling, vanity-free performances from its three leads.

The pooch killer is Joseph (Mullan), a crumpled, unshaven widower who's prone to random outbursts of rage and spends much of his time down the pub with a racist buddy. After an altercation, he seeks refuge in a charity shop run by Hannah (Colman), a nice middle-class Christian who lives in a pleasant suburb on the posh side of town. They don't exactly strike up an immediate friendship ("Why do you hate god so much?" "Why are you so f*cking stupid?"), but Joseph's assumptions about Hannah's cosy, privileged lifestyle prove unfounded when we meet her hubby, James (Marsan) - a violent, manipulative bully.

Without downplaying the power of Mullan's performance, Joseph is a character well within his discomfort zone. And while James is arguably the most irredeemable bastard Marsan has ever played, he's comparatively two-dimensional. As the focus shifts and this slowly becomes Hannah's story, it's Olivia Colman - she of TV comedy fame - who impresses the most in a heart-breaking role. Considine keeps redemption on a tight leash without extinguishing all hope, but this is not for the misery porn averse. Indeed, the only cheery interlude occurs at a funeral. (Robin Askew)

website http://paddyconsidine.co.uk/

Opens: October 7

Copyright Robin Askew 2011