The Wee Man

I wasn't sure what to expect, a fairly absorbing movie dramatising the life of infamous Glaswegian Paul Ferris. A gangster with a degree of notorioty, the film puts him in a fairly good light, I'm not too sure that was the case in real life events. Well acted for the most part, Martin Compston is always a great performer, he brings the film to life. I have to say I loved Rita Tushingham's turn as Rita, not in it for long, but she was great. The violence was well realised, hard hitting and visually strong, great effects, explosions etc. The period detail was excellent, great cars, clothes etc. It's not a film I'd make a regular watch, but a decent watch nonetheless. 6/10

A film about infamous Glasgow gangster Paul Ferris, has long been in the pipeline. I remember hearing rumours off Robert Carlyle playing the part many years ago, and that would off been awesome! Now they've finally got round too making this controversial offering, you'd be hard pushed too find anyone better in the role than the largely unknown Martin Compston. Who does a great job here. Problem is a lot off the rest off the stars seem completely miscast in their roles, and a lot off this 80's/90's set story has clearly been filmed in the present day, with not much effort into making it look like otherwise.

There's no doubt that there is a great story here, and I did enjoy the movie because off its complicated, based-on-true-events style plot. But for a film in development for so long, you'd think there would be more success in other parts off its production.

John Hannah is only in the movie so people who are only interested in well known actors may watch it. Same with Patrick Bergin, Who doesn't pull off a Scottish accent. Its hard too know how much off the story is true as well, what with it being told from the perspective off Ferris (and being based on his book) with the parts that try too make him look as innocent as possible/try to make you sympathise with him falling flat, when you know a lot off the bad things that happened in the real life events that encouraged this movie, have been conveniently cut out.

British cinema has not been at its best in recent years. All of our most brilliant story tellers go to Hollywood. The story here is good. Compelling even. The main characters journey from scared boy to prolific gangster is a decent enough. Rather than being a bad story done well, this is a good story done badly. The writing isn't great, although the acting is for the most part decent. The film fails because the narrative is massively disjointed, which is a shame because the production values seem quite high and if a little more care had been taking in 'how' to tell this good story then it would have been a decent film. Watch if you have nothing better to do.

Went to see this in the cinema and thought it would be hard hitting and exciting. Had high expectations but was really let down. Firstly, all the woman cast members were terrible. Acting left a lot to be desired and were wooden and frankly annoying. Stand out performance was from the actor who played Arthur Jr (Fat Boy.) Being from Glasgow- the accents were ridiculous- if you come from the South Side of Glasgow you don't talk like you are from Edinburgh. Some of the more violent scenes were quite good. The most annoying thing about this film was the portrayal of Paul Ferris. He was not a hero, he did not stab and scalp people because he was bullied as a child. He was a criminal and a thug. Its as if someone has listened to Paul Ferris' side of the story and not listened to anyone else. The film was mince. Would give this a miss if you are interested in the Glasgow Gangster scene as it does not ring true to what really happened.

I was interested to see this movie as I had heard about it in production and thought a Scottish gangster film would be entertaining. Well, first you have to tune in to the Scottish accent which my wife found pretty hard. But other than that I found it a very enjoyable romp with a few scenes that make you flinch or smile but without the use of close up gore. How accurate it is historically is questionable but that is true of almost all "true life" movies, nevertheless the characters are well developed and largely believable and there are some great performances from Martin Compston as Ferris, John Hannah as Tam McGraw and particularly Stephen McCole as a troubled Junior Thomson. Watch it with an open mind and enjoy, The Godfather it isn't but for a low budget UK produced movie it is good entertainment.