Review by Theo Robertson

This is going to be a difficult review but THIS IS VANITY is a difficult film to watch . Based upon a true life and tragic case of a woman killing her daughter and killing herself in a fire it's difficult to comment on it without sounding like a parody of a Daily Mail reader . It's the sort of film that the Brits do very well probably because it deals with life in present day Britain where lives can become a living hell due to the actions of a few feral youths and the apathy of the establishment . You might say that the gang of youths don't have much in the way of motivation to being violent vermin but what sort of motives do they need ? We're not talking about " the wretched of the Earth " but the scum of the Earth

In the words of a traditional saying often attributed to 18th Century philosopher Edmund Burke " All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing " and here we see it in action . The violent unrelenting attacks on Angela and her daughter are stomach churning to watch and I see Oliver Goodrum seems to have drawn some criticism on this page in that he's over egging the nauseating pudding . I disagree to an extent . It does seem strange that some violent chav attends church with his parents and this aspect seems merely to exist as a plot device to set up the ending but apart from that Goodrum quite rightly wants you to be bloody angry about the indifference the establishment have towards crime ridden council estates . It took guts for the director in casting an ethnic minority actor in the role of Superintendent Charles who is nothing more that a time server picking up his handsome salary and doing nothing to earn it but that's typical of the hierarchy of the political establishment and law enforcement in this country . Google Ali Dizaei for an extreme example of the sort of plod we get in order for society to celebrate diversity . The police also have a totally meta-physical approach to law enforcement - if they don't investigate crimes then there's no crime being committed . Orwell would be proud . And if you think it's ridiculous no one would help Angela well ask yourself who was helping the Jews during the holocaust ? The defendants at Nuremberg were claiming the same thing " I never heard anything , I never saw anything , I didn't know what was going on " yeah sure you didn't and in the words of George Santayana " Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it "

Rant over