It Was an Accident

After a spate of dreadful Brit' crime thrillers, finally a (semi) original crime based caper with a rom-com edge.

Fine performance from Chiwtel Ejiofor as the luckless Nicky, an ex-con who finds himself trapped between the police, gang boss Rameez, psycho thug Mickey (an insane Beesley), and Fitch (Bolam) a throw-back to the old days of the Krays.

As fate conspires against him, it seems he'll never get it together with the beautiful Noreen (a post M:I-2 low key appearance by from Newton).

And some of the best dialogue since Snatch.

Most cheeky cockney crime capers fail to have a fully developed story and insult the audiences intelligence with incredibly stupid plot contrivances. It Was an Accident is no exception but what raises it a little above the others is the better than usual dialogue, which was almost enough to carry the whole picture but by the last act you're wanting more substance.

As the dialogue is the only thing going for it, it could be more accessible. What's the point of using lots of gibberish only a tiny percentage of the UK population would understand?

Huseyin and the actors do well with the material but the material is too weak and falls apart too easily.

I can imagine the pitch went something like this : " It`s a fresh funky comedy with some black geezer . Little bit like TRAINSPOTTING or LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS innit . Give some money to make the film . I`m a geezer "

Sorry but I think the bloke doing the pitch was a little bit naughty because IT WAS AN ACCIDENT seems to resemble something like CIRCUS or RANCID ALUMINIUM .

The main problem ( And boy is it a problem ) is a horrible , underdeveloped script . The characters and situations are incredibly silly and several scenes seem to be included simply because it seemed like a good idea at the time . There is nothing that could have saved the film from its woeful script but director Metin Huseyin hasn`t made even a token attempt to improve any potential of the film . The cast go way over the top and perhaps the worst thing about the performances is the swearing . I`ve nothing against bad language , in fact profanities uttered by characters can actually be funny or dramatic , but here it sounds crude , irritating and unconvincing . Show`s how bad IT WAS AN ACCIDENT is when I complain about the language . I also want to complain about the script ( Again ) the direction ( Again ) and the performances ( Again ). What a crap film