The Young Poisoner's Handbook

Troubled teen is sent to a nuthouse for rehabilitation of his addiction to concocting toxic substances. I got a couple of laughs from this film, but it wasn't exactly a comedy - if it was, then clearly it was the blackest comedy I've ever seen. Be ready to see lots of vomit and a really vomitous lounge singer named Dickie Boone. Very good picture about an extremely deluded boy.

As a boy, Graham was always keen on chemistry. When he is introduced to a deadly chemical he begins to conduct experiments on his cruel family – namely by slowly poisoning his mother. Shortly after her death Graham is caught for her murder and sentenced to a mental institution. With help and treatment from a physiatrist, Graham is rehabilitated and released into the community. But can his love of poison be controlled?

I first saw this in the cinema many years ago and held off writing a review because I wanted to be sure that I could give it a fair review – memory not that great you know. So I watched it on channel 4 last week and was quite taken aback – I didn't remember it being quite that dark and disturbed. The plot is quite like Kind Hearts & Coronets in the set up and delivery (more in the delivery) but is a lot darker and more cruel than that classic. The comedy is of the very dark type and mostly comes from Graham's narration. His narration plays his acceptance of very shocking events as run-of-the-mill things that happen in the background, this juxtaposition works well and makes it funny.

The actual poisonings are not always easy to laugh through, while some of his mother's ordeal is played for laughs, most of it is quite cruel and upsetting. I think it worked well for playing the audience on the fact that we didn't quite know what this was – it was based on a true story yet was played for laughs as well as serious at times. However this same ploy is to it's weakness as it is difficult to settle into for this same reason. The director seems very assured and handles this better, mixing inappropriate music with the action as well as directing it very flat and clinically.

O'Conor is the perfect choice for the role. Onscreen he is cold and cruel but it is his narration is where he excels – delivering perfectly deadpan lines. The support cast are all OK but mostly play exaggerated characters on the whole – British stereotypes and such. The film wisely leaves them as undeveloped this because if we cared too much for them or related to them then it would have been impossible to feel anything but revulsion for Graham. As cardboard cutouts they seem less than Graham in terms of the film (wonder how the real victims' families felt about this view).

Overall this is a strange film but one that has enough going for it to be worht watching. However it should be noted that it is quite cruel and upsetting – we are not allowed to feel anything for Graham's victims. The humour is rarely laugh out loud funny and this will probably only be for those who like their comedy very dark.

Director Benjamin Ross has done a terrific job creating a humorously warped view of life through the eyes of Graham Young, alienated boy genius and serial poisoner. Hugh O'Conor perfectly portrays Graham's carefully studied innocent appearance, which Graham constantly feigns lest anyone find out what he is really thinking in his twisted, calculating mind. O'Conor manages the tricky job of looking innocent enough to fool the other characters, but maniacal enough that the audience always knows what is going on.

Through Graham's eccentric (to say the least) point-of-view, we witness the painfully mundane Young family, the pitifully easy to fool psychiatric and medical community, and the pathetically simple-minded middle-class. Ross captures the comic disdain with which Graham sees his surroundings without disposing of the distance necessary to be horrified at Graham's "experiments" and the fate of his unwitting subjects.

Because of Ross' careful tightrope walking between distance from and intimacy with Graham, the audience can't fully fall under Graham's spell and sympathize completely with him. There are some gruesome scenes of people reacting to poison, but these are necessary to heighten the audience's horror at Graham's incapability to assess his own actions and to recognize his own evil. Ross gives us an entertaining, yet twisted, glimpse into genius gone wrong, without sensationalizing Graham as a hero.

It is also very hard to go out for drinks or coffee after seeing this movie.

'The Young Poisoner's Handbook' is one of the freshest, most daring and original movies to come out of Britain in years. Hugh O'Conor is perfect as the oddball "young poisoner", and the supporting cast are all splendid too. I'm not sure just how accurate the events portrayed here are, but it doesn't matter anyway. As a movie this is a compelling black comedy that will be appreciated by anyone who is looker for something that isn't your usual bland and simplistic fare.

I shudder to think how this plot and characters would have been handled in a mainstream Hollywood movie! I can just see Leo or Toby in the lead role, an "explanation" for his psychotic behaviour, and an uplifting, heart warming happy ending. Thankfully Benjamin Ross has a more unique vision, and he has given us a movie that will stay with you for years to come. 'The Young Poisoner's Handbook' is fantastic!

I really enjoyed The Young Poisoner's Handbook. Some people made the comparison with A Clockwork Orange from Stanley Kubrick and I can get where they come from if they mean the same tune they play a couple of times and also the fact that when Graham Young is getting institutionalized one doctor tries to cure him from his demons but other then that those two movies are completely different. While A Clockwork Orange was about a young man against society using ultra violence this one is about a young smart apathetic guy poisoning everybody he dislikes. Plus the fact that this movie is based on a true story while Kubrick's masterpiece was just fictional makes it totally useless to compare both movies. Nevertheless I thought Tobias Arnold as Graham Young gave a good performance as well as the other actors. Certainly worth a watch.