Steineded How sad is this?

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

carbuff Just another British gangster flick? That's what I was afraid of. It starred Colin Farrell, so I thought I would have to at least give it a try. Farrell, like most actors, has a limited range, but when he fits a role, he usually excels, as he does in this flick. Of course he plays the brooding, soulful, powder keg criminal with a heart of gold (whose sister, well acted by some relatively unknown performer, is a mentally disturbed hooker with a heart of stone). Very pleasantly, the storyline, which is punctuated with some pretty rough violence and a killer soundtrack, is quite unpredictable (at least, I thought so). Even though I watched it a couple of days ago, I'm still not certain about how I feel about the ending, which will likely leave a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths. Still, I can't say that I saw where the plot was going, or where it was going to end up, which is one of the characteristics I value most in a film experience. Because my mind hasn't made complete peace with the ending, I'm holding back full marks, although I think there are arguably legitimate artistic reasons for how it was all wrapped up.

cinecephale I am very ambivalent about this film. It is a real pleasure to see so many great actors, all at the top of their game: Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Ray Winstone, Thewlis. But the script is all over the place and in the end, deeply unconvincing. It is as if the filmmaker couldn't make up his mind about what story he wanted to tell: a story about celebrity? cinema? gangsters? a love story between a star and a nobody? revenge? redemption? Maybe a better writer could have pulled it, but it is not the case here. Just the duel between Winstone and Farrell would have made a great movie, but why throw in a traumatized movie star, and a nymphomaniac sister and a killer producer and who the hell was Joe that was killed in the beginning?! It is just too much, too many useless characters, to many storie lines, too hard to believe, too much plot holes. Still it is weirdly entertaining, thanks to Winstone and Farrell's wonderful charisma. It is really a case where the actors pleasure and work almost redeem a very, very bad script.

rowmorg Colin Farrell plays an orphan just leaving prison for GBH (he was innocent, of course) who within a few minutes is mixed up in two employment offers. One is from a ghastly, brutal, psychopathic killer (Ray Winstone), the other from a fey, titless actress who also has no family (Keira Knightley). Colin's supposed sister (Anna Friel) is the worst-mannered person on earth, but he loves her deeply. Ray offs her without ceremony, using a hammer. Meanwhile Keira has quit her upstairs painting to dally in bed with Colin, delicately hiding her absence of bust from the camera. He's pretty fuelled, because they can be seen together in the USA, where she is going. Sadly, he has to knock off a couple of louts and Ray first, in a sequence of brutal murders. Then, sadly, he is stabbed many times by a street oaf he had been after for killing a good mate of his who was a wino down-and-out. End of story. No tears for him, then. And Keira? Who gives a damn? They blew UKP25 million on this phony piece of rubbish. I hope they had fun, because we didn't.

loveagoodstory Ex-con Colin Farrell is released from prison and take a job as a minder to an actress prowled on by the paparazzi. He also tries to resist the pull back into crime by the local gangster, keen to have him on his payroll.If this plot was all this film had, it would be run of the mill. Instead, Colin Farrell fills his character out beautifully to counterbalance a reliably excellent Ray Winstone as the slightly-polished savage in his gangster. The performances of Knightley, Thewlis and the brilliant and rarely-seen Chaplin add great flavour to the storytelling. The sum total is a compelling film with depth of character.It's hard to tell oft-told story elements but the way to success seems to be to tell them well rather than invent twists and turns to try and impress the audience. This film gets that balance of approach right and is a fine watch.