Greyhawk

Every now and then a small film comes along and makes a big impact and I felt this was such a film. Its stars Alec Newman ('A Lonely Place to die') as Mal; he is a British Army veteran of Afghanistan where he lost sight in both eyes. He is living in a sink hole estate in London and his only friend is his guide dog – Quince.

Then one day Quince runs off or rather he does not bring his ball back and Mal is left lost in a dark World. So he decides to find his dog which means entering the Greyhawk estate and facing up to all it has to offer. He is also disillusioned with the World and has an attitude that us designed to lose and not win friends.

As I said this is a remarkable film and Alec Newman's performance as the blind soldier is brilliant. There is a part role for Jack Shepherd too and he is always good value. Zoe Telford puts in a great performance as the mother with a heart who has given up on her dreams.

This story touches on many issues and does so in a very real and human way. It is one where you never even glance at your watch it is that engrossing – completely recommended.

A former British serviceman blinded in action loses his guide dog

And that's the plot of this gloomy British drama . Reading the brief summary it's a case of that particularly recent British phenomena known as "Grief whoring" . Ah the good old days of this when young soldiers would be killed in Afghanistan and massed crowds would gather with individuals having a contest to see who could wail the loudest on behalf of a dead person they had never met . I don't want to sound all nasty and cynical but I've always found this a very unhealthy and worst of all hypocritical attitude and one wonders what these people do with their free time now that NATO involvement is over and more crucially the TV cameras are no longer at Wootan Basset ?

Like I said I'll try not to be too cynical and in its favour GREYHAWK doesn't go overboard with tear stained teeth gnashing and other manipulative tricks . Director Mike Pitt and screenwriter Matt Pitt have made a relatively poignant film centered around a rather unsympathetic protagonist .Mal played by Alec Newman and written and played so that Mal never comes across as a victim . Instead he is understandably a bitter and twisted man

Also to be fair to the production team for a film lasting an hour and a half with an absolute threadbare , wafer thin premise everyone has been able to do the very best they can do and the film does have genuine social consciousness about it . The downside is that it also shows the need that if you're making a feature length film you need a strong plot to drive it so as something that would have worked as an excellent short film just becomes an average feature length one

This doesn't fit any genre but it's pretty good. It would probably get better reviews if it went down the action vigilante route but it's strength is realism. Well worth watching.

'Greyhawk' has Alec Newman (lately seen in the BBC's 'Waterloo Road') as Mal, a blinded ex-soldier. A walking attitude, he drinks in the pub where a well-meaning elderly man (Jack Shepherd, 'Wycliffe') bores him; he pays for a prostitute; he has to cope with bullying local youths. Through all this his constant companion is his guide dog, a labrador called Quince. But one day, while Mal is throwing a ball for Quince on the socially-deprived Greyhawk council estate, the dog doesn't come back.

I decided to watch this film because the situation sounded so desperate: a blind man having to search for his guide dog. How would I cope in such a situation? I hope I'd realise that people are more willing to help if you treat them with respect; Mal just goes around grousing at everyone - okay, he has reason to, but it doesn't make him a very sympathetic hero. Newman is sighted, and perhaps the film would have had more resonance with a blind actor in the lead role, although I can appreciate the logistical difficulties that may have caused. As it is, with attacks on guide dogs being increasingly reported in the UK, the film is at least very timely.

Pointless. You get drawn into a belief that something is going to happen....nice or not. In the end you wish you hadn't bothered.