Harry Brown is a pensioner, and former Marine, living in a very run-down apartment complex (or is it flat) in the urban quarter of London. It's a crappy place to be; kids ling their drugs and guns, and beat up those who happen to venture just a little far out into the path. One of those is Harry's friend, Leonard Atwell, who tries to defend himself against the scum on the streets and winds up stabbed with his own knife. Brown is distraught over this (already he's been all alone since his wife just died and a daughter died many years before, perhaps during childbirth or as a child), and knows the cops won't do much about it despite doing some investigations. So, Brown takes his skills as a former Marine, before facing off against the Northern Irish years before, and uses it to exact payback.
Immediately moviegoers will flash to Gran Torino, as a story of a lonely, grumpy old man mixing it up with gang-bangers in a part of town he should have moved out of. But it actually owes more to Taxi Driver in some part- an ex-Marine wiping "the scum off the streets"- and of course Charles Bronson in Death Wish. But as Michael Caine points out in interviews, there was a certain underlying joy Bronson had with his character of Paul Kersey in the Death Wish movies, even in the first one which was most gritty. This film, about the horror of gang violence and drugs and prostitution as an everyday occurrence, really hits the spot far better than the shots of gang-bangers in Eastwood's film. In fact, I would go as far as to say Harry Brown trumps Gran Torino in the department of being about "something" (Torino about racism, Brown about vigilantism).
And at the center of a film directed with an artful, patient eye by newcomer Daniel Barber, and written with wisdom and tough attitude when it needs to be by Gary Young, is Michael Caine's performance. He's so good in a film like this because we believe this is Harry Brown, or what he might be like, and we can see ourselves in a part of Brown due to Caine's sympathy (or even empathy) with the character. This is a man of reserve, but also resolve, and when he takes to the streets it's because it's really a last resort, a kind of fight for survival as well as revenge, and Caine doesn't hold back when Brown needs to shed some tears, or to have that fierceness in his eyes against these young punks. One such scene, which I'll not soon forget, is after he plugs a bullet into the gut of a junkie dumbass who tries to pull a gun on Brown as he's purchasing a few weapons, and tells a story about a fellow officer he was fighting alongside who had to die in the trenches because of a lack of medical care.
It's one of the best scenes I've ever seen with Caine in it, and overall the film provides him the opportunity for another piece of superb work. Less remarkable, though still decent, is Emily Mortimer, who provides some sensitivity but also is a little soft in a way for the character of a no-nonsense detective hot on the heels of the Atwell/young-punks case (in some scenes, frankly, I just didn't buy her as a detective). But this is so small a flaw that it's hard to judge the film against it. Harry Brown takes its subject matter by the throat, treats it cinematically with care, and when it's violent you get shaken up and when Brown is in the shadows one suddenly wonders why Caine didn't play Batman in Nolan's movies. A serious near-classic on street violence and revenge. 9.5/10
