Boulevard de Londres

London Boulevard is written and directed by William Monahan. It stars Colin Farrell, David Thewlis, Ray Winstone, Ben Chaplin, Keira Knightley and Anna Friel. Music is by Sergio Pizzorno and cinematography by Chris Menges.

After serving his stretch for GBH, Harry Mitchel (Farrell) returns to his manor and finds gangland boss Rob Gant (Winstone) wants him as one of his charges.

Written and directed by the man who co-wrote The Departed, it's not hard to guess what sort of tone London Boulevard is set at. Which for anyone who follows neo-noir will find plenty to like here, not least the stylish and tonally compliant photography of Menges.

However, falling under the neo-noir banner becomes a curse in a way because there are far greater films of this ilk to liken it too. Pic at least does have the courage to not cop out in resolutions, but again there is no surprise factor for the genre faithfuls.

The narrative often meanders, shoehorning in Knightley's (underused) harassed actress as a love interest in the process, and London accents are choppy. It also is criminal to have Stephen Graham and Eddie Marsan in your movie and barely give them screen time!

On the plus side of things, the violence and dialogue is often taut and tart respectively, backed by a scorching rocky hipster soundtrack. Farrell is good value as a tough guy, Winstone does what he does best, menacing of course, while Thewlis steals the film as a wired cool cat with menace surprisingly lurking in is heart.

As a whole it fails to hit all the right spots, but enough in here for neo-noir fans to feed on as an appetiser to a more fulfilling noir meal. 6/10

Somewhere, deep down, there still is a great movie hidden here. It had all of the right ingredients in it to become a great crime movie, done in a very typical raw British style but the movie as it turned was still mostly a disappointing one.

Reason why the movie isn't as good as it potential could had been is because it's lacking focus and is trying to do and tell far too many things. The movie features simply far too many different plot lines and characters in it, which are all really fine, if only they were being the basis of a different and separate movie on their own.

The movie is being drama about a guy trying to settle in again, after being released from jail but it's also a crime movie, that features a very crime-like and thriller type of plot in it. And if that wasn't enough already; it also tries to be a romantic movie. There is never really a right balance between any of these different aspects, which makes this a very uneven movie, that also doesn't really work out the way it was supposed to because of all of this.

Especially the romantic plot line suffered from this. In the movie there was absolutely no reason for the Colin Farrell and the Keira Knightley to fall in love with each other. Which was odd, since they still seemed to have some good chemistry together. The movie however never makes it seem believable or logical and you even wonder why it's in the movie at all, since it doesn't even seem to be all that important for the movie and its main story, once you really start thinking back about it.

It still is a great movie with some great actors and acting in it. Keira Knightley plays mostly herself and she actually is hardly in the movie at all, so she doesn't impress all that much but Colin Farrell on the other hand is truly great in this. The movie also has a truly great supporting cast, with actors such as David Thewlis, Ray Winstone and Ben Chaplin all involved.

The thing that also helped to save the movie, was the fact that this remains a very well made film. It has a good style to it and also nothing wrong with its storytelling. It just is the story itself that isn't all that great because it tries too hard to impress, with as many different ideas in it as possible. Still a valiant attempt by writer turned director William Monahan and I'm still very interested in seeing more movies done by him. I'm sure that if he continues to do more movies as a director, he will become more successful at it and has the capability to make some really great crime movies. A genre that obviously suits him well, despite the fact that this movie is still mostly being somewhat of a disappointment and just not entirely successful enough at what it's all trying to achieve.

It really had far more potential in it.

6/10

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London Boulevard had many flaws but in the end I think it comes out with more good than bad. The actors give strong performances especially Winston and Farrell, and the plot definitely keeps you interested. This is a crime movie about gangsters, and doesn't offer much more than another story about the intertwining and complications of a certain group of gangsters.

I think some downfalls would be that some of the scenes tended to jump around and not flow into the next as smoothly but even this was not an issue much of the time. It had a strong sense of style which also made up for some weak moments in the plot, specifically around the middle of the film it looses momentum. If you like crime movies than this would surely entertain you on a Friday night but I wouldn't add it to your list of your top ten crime movies of all time.

The movie had promise - directed by The Departed's writer William Monahan and starring an eclectic bunch of British stars Colin Farrell, Keira Knightly, Ray Winstone, David Thewlis and Anna Friel. Even Eddie Marsan, Stephen Graham and Ben Chaplin make appearances.

Unfortunately despite a snazzy score and a stylish flourish, this movie is nothing more than a collection of London gangster movie clichés and stereotypes with an obvious script written by an unauthentic source. The characters can all be labelled with a single word (villain, victim, druggie etc), bereft of any depth or colour.

Farrell plays Mitchell, fresh from prison and determined to go straight, within half-an-hour, he has been offered a choice of two jobs. One working as a debt collector for tough and possibly homosexual (who cares?) gangland boss (Winstone, who else) and the other protecting a damaged & shy actress (Knightly). Needless to say, Winstone doesn't take kindly to being refused and sets his sights on hurting Mitchell as revenge (hasn't he got better things to do?) The movie doesn't ring true at every juncture and the only pleasure the viewer grab, is when watching Thewlis's thinly veiled Withnail impression or with the music on show.

Do yourself a favour and watch Layer Cake instead.

London Boulevard is a big screen adaptation of Ken Bruen's 2001 fictional crime novel of the same name and a directorial debut for William Monahan of Departed (2006) fame, for which he contributed the screen play in Martin Scorcese's seminal Oscar triumph. Monahan manages to assemble a pretty interesting cast for the job matching big name attractions notably Colin Farrell for the lead of Mitchell an ex-con trying to place his life on the straight and narrow who finds complications aplenty but centrally in the shape of Keira Knightley playing Charlotte, a reclusive actress in need of Mitchell's muscle in order to fend off pesky paparazzi, perform some odd jobs around her abode whilst also seeking comfort in his softer side when making use of Mitchell as a confidante.

The strength of the piece is in the supporting cast who mainly transpire as conduits for Mitchells struggle with the temptations of a potential return to his old ways. Leading the second tier is Ray Winstone as crime lord Gant who genuinely creates an atmosphere of dread when on screen as he attempts to lure Farrell back to the dark-side. David Thewlis is equally adept as he plays Jordan a drug induced failed thespian who is Charlotte's business manager. There are also roles for Ben Chaplin as a blundering hood whilst Stephen Graham and Eddie Marsan are shamefully under used in their minor roles.

As you might be thinking there is a lot a going on here and that's sort of where Monahan gets into trouble, the narrative is littered with plot-holes and semi developed ideas and characters such as Anna Friel who pops in and out the story as a Mitchell's troubled sister, this is largely a product of the derivative nature of the project. Monahan seems to be tipping his hat at the types of movie he himself has indulged, for example there is clear a sense of early Guy Ritchie in style of the visuals, soundtrack and occasional attempts at humour. The mood and tone owes more to Scorcese traits such as an angry gratuitous racism and overly proud glorification of the gangster life style. It's a rarity when a film could be said to be too short, but one way London Boulevard could have been improved is an extra 45 minutes or so to pay attention to its many details.

The major task London Boulevard will have is proving it has any substance, it will be interesting to see if William Monahan will be encouraged to take this debut any further and perfect or enhance his directorial style with future work, if so this could be remembered more fondly as part of a bigger picture. If not it will fall through the cracks of irrelevance rather quickly.