Anthony

Moving and powerful. A must-see. An imagined life. Imagined because Antony Walker was not allowed to live this life. Brilliantly structured, scripted, directed and acted.

• Anthony

My Rating 9/10

Jimmy McMcGovern British writer producer of The Street, Accused ,Cracker and Moving On is a master at telling the stories of everyday men and women their struggles , their families and their character. Anthony is a true story and especially timely and thought provoking today when violence directed at people of different skin colour is hitting the headlines each day. Nobody involved in the production could have anticipated how a drama about a racist killing would be broadcast in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in the USA, and the activism which followed from the Black Lives Matter movement. This production in particular has, Jimmy admitted, refocused his thoughts on diversity, particularly within the film and television industry. In July 2005, black teenager Anthony Walker was murdered by two white men in an unprovoked racist attack in a Liverpool park. He was just 18 years old. This film tells the story of how this talented young man's life might have turned out. Jimmy McGovern is also a master of economy of script writing he can tell a story in 90 minutes that some writers would turn into an 8 episode series. Research is important for many projects, whether it's adapting a real-life story like Anthony's or writing a history essay. For this script, Jimmy spoke to as many people involved in Anthony's life as possible. As well as his immediate family, including his sisters and brother, and Anthony's friends, he also spoke to people who were in contact with Anthony on the night he was killed, or involved in the immediate police investigation. This included speaking to the surgeon who attempted to save Anthony's life. The different viewpoints helped create the most authoritative script possible. I didn't know one actor in this telemovie but they were all superb ,especially Toheeb Jimoh who stars as Anthony Walker. The Director Terry Mc Donough who also directed The Street, Killing Eve has done Anthony Walker and Jimmy McGovern proud and without spoiling the story his technique of telling Anthony's story in such a unique way adds to the power of the movies message. I watched it on BBC so not sure when it will be available on other streaming networks but I can't recommend Anthony highly enough it needs to be seen by everyone. A quote from Anthony's mother says it all

"I went to Jimmy because I couldn't think of anyone more suited who could depict, highlight and draw attention to the hard messages of a life not lived - Anthony's unfilled dreams, his potentials and the many lives he would have impacted on - which now will never be realised. Gee Walker

Absolutely heartbreaking. Shows the harsh reality of this world.

I know this is based on a real life event. But the story of Anthony's would be life is through rose tinted glasses. The acting is ok but the story is slow. If it wasn't for the fact that the murder of this poor boy actually happened the drama was like a bad episode of some medical drama like casualty / holby

So this TV film hit the BBC last week and I have now watched Anthony and here is my review for the film. This premise of the film looks at how the life of a young black man could have been if he wasn't murdered at the age of 18. Now before I review this film, I have to say that I will be judging this as a film, obviously the real life incident was terrible but this review will be looking at how good the film is and that alone.

Main Character Toheeb Jimoh plays Anthony here and I thought in terms of his acting he was really good here. He comes across as a likeable normal guy and does a good job in making him as likeable as possible which is credit to him. But I thought that due to the way the film is made I never really felt connected to the character of Anthony, the film is very choppily made and it does a poor job establishing what Anthony was really like. I mean I still cared about his situation of course but not as much as I was meant to and that is the film's fault not Toheeb Jimoh's fault.

Supporting Characters Bobby Schofield plays Mick a character with a speech impediment and I thought he did a good job. I liked his and Anthony's dynamic and when he is on screen he may be the most interesting part of this film, especially in the first act. All of Anthony's relationships and friendships are well acted especially his mother it's just again we don't see enough of them and the lack of screen time really does hurt in the emotional impact and could have been done much better.

Story The story here is a mixed bag, the second half of the story does a great job of showing the intensity and tragedy of the situation. It is hard to watch at times but that is important and necessary for this film to succeed quite a bit and it adds a gut punch to the tragic ending of the story. But I can't lie the first 40 minutes of the film wasn't interesting really and that is almost half of the film, it came across as a bit of a puff piece and is dull and unimaginative as it is the part of the film not based on true events. I just think this film would have been better looking at Anthony's life before he was killed not some made up stuff of what could have happened afterwards.

Script The script is okay, there are a nice bit of drama and humour there but for a really heavy subject matter there wasn't as many heavy moments as I thought there could have been. This film could have been even better if they added more weight to it.

Style As mentioned above when the film focuses on its uncomfortable moments it does a great job and hits home just how ridiculous and disgusting these acts of violence were and still are in every day society. But the first half of the film is just really slow and boring and it took me out of the film and took me a long time for me to get into it and really get invested.

Overall Overall, this is an average but maybe important film. In this day and age it is crazy that we even have these issues but it is important that these terrible injustices are shown which means it might be worth a watch for people who need to see these things happen in film. But I would advise that there are some better films based on racism then this one such as Fruitvale Station which is a film I would recommend to watch over this one.

Rating - 5/10.