Fighting heart review! Last night I was honoured to attend the premiere of a Norfolk based and shot feature film. These are my thoughts.
Let's start with the positives. This film is well acted for a start! Lee Hampton manages to pull out some great performances especially from the lead Freddie Hogan and Leila Ellis as his best friend. The story was well developed and whilst having a short run time this film packs a lot of character and depth into that tight run time. The music is phenomenal I was welling up more than once in the theatre! Sam Hoggarth's cinematography was excellent he really captured the emotion of the scenes as well as Anna Bream was camera operator on one my favourite shots I've seen in a long time! The gym scenes were shot in an actual gym with fighters and this made the authenticity much better! At the end of the film the credits were really a showground for the wealth of people who gave up time, energy and money into this project and they should be proud of this film The negatives. The film is shot with little to no money so unfortunately the film does have a few technical problems as in sound issues and some of the shots aren't pulled off as I guess the filmmakers would have liked but the essence is there. Some of the punches in some of the boxing scenes don't match the hit effects but truly all minor stuff.
Overall a few minor technical issues don't detract from what has to be one of my top 3 films of this year! At the end of the film I was crying and emotionally involved in the characters and isn't that why we go to the cinema and watch films? Sure it doesn't have a gloss like the majors but in a year of vapid gloss I found a film with heart and lots of it! 9/10
