London Road

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.

Another reviewer referred to this as "astonishing." I suppose that can be taken several ways.

When I decided to watch this film I missed "musical" in the description and mistakenly assumed it was a murder docu-drama, rather than a crime docu-songfest.

I guess it could be described as innovative. It is allegedly based on a real event, the real words of those in the community, the reactions/implications of & for those in the locale affected by the murders and the subsequent investigations. As we are told repeatedly, people became suspicious of one another.

The question remains, is all of this something to sing about. The medium is the message or at least it influences how one feels about it all. For me it just seemed tedious and rather bizarre.

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.

Yes, if like me, you see this film without knowing anything about its content and presentation, you should find it astonishing. As you can see from the plot summary in IMDb above, the story is a true one, in Ipswich in Britain, where five murders occurred not that many years ago. These events were then taken up by the National Theatre, and now as a film. There are a wide range of characters in the street (London Road) and they all have their own words used to make the dialogue. However, it is the presentation and delivery of the story that makes this film so riveting. My only reservations were the handling of two of the central characters which seemed a little far-fetched, but these are minor quibbles in a film which will be very differently delivered on the screen from what anyone would expect. Some of the imagery in the crowd scenes is especially noteworthy. Definitely recommended for art-house film fans, and the large crowd in Melbourne at the screening I attended seemed to be most impressed by its audacity.

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.