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This Is England (2006)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
12/16
12/16:
This Is England is a complicated coming-of-age UK picture that takes place during the early 80's.
The reason why the film gets a '7' from me is that it's unfocused. What exactly is the primary theme? In one way,
This Is England is about becoming a skinhead. In another way, it's about learning hate. The third is it's
about being in a gang whose members have a lot of things in common.
Then, we're onto the silly Falklands War. Next is the nationalism. Skipping ahead is the music. Or is the entire
thing a big giant trip down the memory lane for old time's sake? I mean, what's the movie about? Just pick a theme,
and stick with it, no matter what. Anyway, the acting is uniformly good. There's no question the characters are
borderline mentally retarded. It's what school is for.
Stephen Graham, who's familiar as Tommy the sidekick to Jason Statham's Turkish in
Snatch, steals the film, and he has several defining scenes. The best one is when
his character was told the truth by Lol in the car and how he reacted afterwards. Apart from Stephen, everybody
else is more or less the same. Compared to the first half which has a nice buildup, the second falls apart due to
loss of momentum. To end the film exactly the same way as
Les quatre cents coups is both weak and clichéd.
All in all, the filmmakers need to learn how to centralize the story in order to make a more cohesive picture.