London Road

It's not really surprising how an experimental film like this got polarized reviews... The idea, like many said, to create a documentary musical about a real-life murder is absurd, but the execution for the film was great. Many negative reviews regarding London Road mainly criticized this film because this is "not something you should sing about" like bloody hell people, WE'RE IN THE 21ST CENTURY! But once you get past that, you should be able to view London Road without clouded judgement. There really are no standout numbers or standout performances, which is what makes it great, considering it's a musical film about community (not the murder itself, really). The music is complex, but once the ensemble sing as one, it sounds beautiful. The lyrics taken from recordings in real life may be a bit annoying, but they sound quite natural with the characters singing them. The direction, production design and cinematography also surpass many films from Hollywood. Of course, it is for the viewers to decide, but you can't judge it until you've watched it.

This is a musical that presents what happened in the London Road community in Ipswich, after five prostitutes were murdered in that community within only ten days.

"London Road" tells the paranoia, shock and disbelief that the residents face, after the discovery of the murders. Then, there's a hunt for the killer, the subsequent trial and then, the community tries to rebuild itself. I didn't know it's a musical, so I was rather surprised to see people singing and moving in choreographed movements!

I particularly like the fact that the community rebuilds itself from the trauma, making themselves more united and resilient than before. There is a positive message out of the grim circumstances, and this film successfully captures this hopeful atmosphere in the rebuilding stage.

I decided to watch this as I knew about the story and thought it would be a drama about it.

I must have totally missed the 'musical' genre, which I have to say is a bit random, covering this terrible occurrence.

To be fair, there isn't much about the murders its mostly about the community and how they were affected by them and as a result they came together to create a better area.

The singing is a bit rubbish to say the least, however, having Olivia Coleman and Tom Hardy in the cast is a positive (sorry Olivia, singing isn't your strong point)

Overall, I liked the movie but why the hell would they put Tom Hardy's face on their main movie poster when he really isn't a main cast member. They did not let the camera show him throughput the movie, except for one very short scene and then a slight glimpse afterwards, which actually seems like a residue of a scene cut-out of the movie. To be honest, I decided to watch this movie, thinking it has such a great actor in it, so it has to be good. But sheer disappointment struck me when I realized that I had become a victim of cunning (yes, I will use such a harsh word) advertising.

Besides the Tom Hardy thing, however, the movie was quite a different one, kind of a very casual musical and I kind of liked it.

I found this startling at the beginning - a musical about the impact on a community of five serial murders, consisting of dialogue taken from media interviews conducted with neighbours of the accused murderer. But as the film progressed I became intrigued and, quite surprisingly, moved by this unusual documentary. The actors (especially Olivia Coleman) got the lilt of the original dialogue just right, and the music brilliantly melded the rhythm and innate musicality of the language into a diverse range of songs of many musical genres. Most moving, I think, was the song of the streetwalkers who had been most impacted and most sidelined in this tragedy.