Sugarhouse

Sugarhouse is an uncomfortable watch, with painful, often ugly violence and dialogue that is more often than not shouted. It turns to become, mainly a two-man show with white middle-class, jacket-wearing Steven Mackintosh who ventures into ghetto-land somewhere in decaying urban London to buy back a gun used in a murder and black, crack-addict Ashley Walters.

Being far nearer in real life to Mackintosh than Walters (by a far margin!) it wouldn't be right for me, myself to say how realistic the dialogue is, or the scenarios. So, I'm not going to try and pretend to say things like it's 'hip' or 'savvy', but looks and sounds really not very nice.

Walters, plus his chums generally give Mackintosh a hard time, over how a privileged a life he has and much angst and verbal ricocheting carries on. When director Gary Love's camera swings back and forth to them, it's an odd duet experience, so chalk and cheese.

Andy Serkis has been accused of overacting in Sugarhouse and we certainly get our money's worth from his psychopathic drug-dealer character. We see him at the start, nude, stretching his muscles and revealing his many tattoos. More revealing than is necessary, some critics have said, but it gives us a very clear indication that here we have a shaven-head bully more akin the Hannibal Lecter than Peter Pan.

As such, as Hoodwink, he is the colour and propulsion in this film. It would be quite dreary without him and who's to say what is over-the-top? It's of a type of person that thankfully I don't know and hopefully never will. His Irish accent seems pretty good too.

The film certainly came under my radar and watching it on BBC2 now, I was surprised that it was made 5 years ago and I'd never heard of it or referred to.

The one thing you can say about this film was that the performances were all spot on...The cinematography was great as well. Also worth noticing that despite the mileu they didn't over-egg it with some crazy Gangsta Rap soundtrack. The screenplay could have been a bit better and sometimes you felt the same ground was being covered in dialogue. Sometimes motivation was questionable - but perhaps this was the point - these people were not exactly -stable....I believe it was adapted from a play & there were some good moments of humour - so all in all a good British film...although quite a hard film to watch & like - all the swearing & seediness...so definitely not one of the Merchant Ivory school.

I got an invite to see a Preview screening of Sugarhouse Lane last Wednesday & it was a well attended affair in a Hotel screening Room.

The film is set in London, but not the tourist type London you'll have seen in most British Films. Thankfully there's no shot of 'The Gherkin' building which seems to have plagued all films set in London since around 2000.

Most of the action (if thats the right word) takes place in around a derelict warehouse in/or around a Council estate. D takes Tom to this place in order to do some business but has other plans. Unfortunately this is were the films Stage origins let it down because, the film becomes wordy & rather confined to this single location. The film is beautiful to look at, the DoP should be very proud of themselves. I saw the film in the company of a Film Director and that was a comment he agreed with. Look out for the final Crane shot at the end of the film which is just great..

As to the performances, there's a really great performance from Ashley Walters as D a Crack Addict/Hustler. IMHO it much more than the clichéd "Blackman Druggie" part British Black actors are asked to play. It's a really convincing turn as an addict up there with Willie Ross's Drunk Father in 'Rita, Sue and Bob Too' and Samuel L. Jackson's performance in 'Jungle Fever'. There's also a good performance from Andy Serkis as Hoodwink a Northern Irish hard man. Oh, look out for the girl who plays Hoodwinks girlfriend I think in the titles she's called 'Pregnant Girl'. She's in the film for no more than 5 - 6 minutes tops but there's something really striking about her.

I must admit I was expecting something different but that said, I was pleasantly surprised. The film is much better than say other films set in London with Urban theme's like 'Breaking and Entering'. A film well worth having a look at when or if it gets a UK Theatrical release.

Having seen the play Collision at The Old Red Lion some years ago I was interested and exited to see this film version of one of the best contemporary bits of theatre I have seen in recent years. Where the play was taut, tense, real, funny and ultimately moving the film is flabby, hard to follow and ultimately unbelievable.

The film never makes its mind up if it is a serious drama or an urban caper. Consequently it feels unbalanced. The performances echo this; ranging from 'real' to totally cartoon like. Somehow the simple plot ends up being hard to follow and the tension of the three way confrontation is totally lost.

The play made you laugh but at the same time kept you on the edge of your seat - however the film has no humour at all. Where did all that wonderful, very funny and also poignant dialogue between the crack head and the middle class character that was in the play go to?

Perhaps in the hands of a Ken Loach this film would have worked better than it does. As it stands it feels like a total let down of what it could have been.

What a shame.

I saw this at a preview screening... it was a great atmosphere! Ashley Walters really impresses, are those really his teeth? He looks like he's been living in a sewer for a couple of years! He's trying to sell this gun to middle-class Steve Mackintosh, who has found himself for the first time on the wrong side of town as Walters takes him to his home- an abandoned old warehouse. Andy Serkis plays Hoodwink, who's this bloomin scary Ulster man who's somehow found himself on the local estate with his pregnant girlfriend and now runs it, oh and he's the original owner of this gun and he's not too happy that it's gone missing!

A special mention i think should go to Hoodwink's three henchmen/stooges. They haven't had much of a chance of being mentioned in the build-up to this film, especially when you have Walters, Mackintosh and Serkis starring, but as you will see they turn in really good performances that added to the film no end.

This is a side of the capital that is hardly ever shown in films and it was interesting to see, definitely an intention of the makers to juxtapose this ragged side of London with the brand spanking new (one shot pans up from the estate to a view of Canary Wharf that's just right next to it). The film's also quite bloody, but also had the audience roaring with laughter at some points! The characters were very well constructed and there are very good free-flowing performances by all the actors (director was previously an actor as well i think, so just let them get on with it)... well worth going to see.