Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry

Not too often a film like this comes along. When it does however it demands your attention. Based the cult novel by B. S. Johnson, with Peter Greenaway's collaborator Kees Kasander in production and Luke Haines' of Auters and Black Box Recorder behind the soundtrack, Christie Malry's Own Double Entry lays a claim upon the title of the best English film (almost)no one saw.

Christie lives with his mother, and works in a bank. When he discovers the simple bookkeeping principle of double entries - a debit for every credit - the picture starts to clear: he charges himself for every insult received, and credits society for every insult he returns. His «credit-rate» starts from simple acts of vandalism, and escalate to a magnificent, misanthropic plan. Suddenly, Christie's life finds a shocking new meaning.

Brilliant and unsparing, mordant and seductive, this film is an act of courage on it's own. You might find it too much to take if your view of the world is blurred by Hollywood romantic comedies, but if you give it a chance it might change your life -or at least two hours of it...

Christie Malry's Own Double Entry should get a rare reprieve from the vaults of British film obscurity, a rare thing in British film, particularly as it came out during the attack of British idiotic Indies, out-and-out failures, mostly funded by the Taxpayer (e.g Shooting Fish, Rancid Aluminium, Lock, Stock.... etc).

Most of those films came and went. But Christie Malry, based on the novel of cult English experimentalist novelist BS Johnson, and in which Lock Stock actor Moran plays the lead, is the best of these, although ironically it was never released or given any attention, presumably due to its playful, po-faced attitude to terrorism, which would never play post 9/11 (it was made before those events). This in itself is ironic, as Christie is an interesting study in terrorism, a sort of book-keeping Billy Liar who starts his own Fight Club-like crusade worthy of the UniBomber, which attains an added poignancy post 9/11- after all, in the film, made remember in 1999, Christie's surreptitious efforts help start the second Gulf War (and he is portrayed by the media as an Arab).

I understand some of the criticisms of the film made by others below, such as Christie's unbelievable jobs, although Christie's bizarre double-entry system- e.g. "debit: Wagner's Lack of Sympathy: Credit: girl at butcher's shop smiled at me", to my mind makes him a more believable character- after all, he is hardly a balanced character.

I can add some more myself (the failure to update the seventies novel to the present decade, leading to weird anachronisms- a result of lack of funding or attention in art direction?). But I also believe the film is a brave attempt at finding intelligence and depth in the British indie.

Tickell is clearly an admirer of Greenaway, and this shows throughout, in the film's theatrical flair and sense of the visual, as well as the oddball eroticism, all part a way of understanding Christie's abnormal psychology. This is particularly evident in the 'historical' sub-plot of the film (the development of double-bookkeeping in Renaissance Milan by a priest with links to Da Vinci).

And I think the acting is marvellous throughout, particularly the Renaisance Italians and Shirley Ann Field as Christie's mother, and Moran, while not a brilliant actor, clearly works hard in the complex task of being Christie (he says it is his best film, although I don't think there's much competition- with the exception of Puritan, another little known British Indie with Moran at its centre).

it's great that someone in this country is trying to make movies that are different and thought provoking. nick moran is excellent as christie and i'm looking forward to see what he does in the future. the only problem is this film depressed me to the very core. i'm not denying that it's good it's just that in hindsight i wish i'd spent those couple of hours watching something that did'nt make me want to cry. if however you are'nt an emotional cripple like myself, please give this movie a try and support independant film. tell them i sent ya.

I see it in a festival in Athens.Brilliant English film!Hard to explain!What can i say??You M-U-S-T see this film!I can't write very good English,so i can't write a lot of the plot of the film.Go see it and you will see something you will remember a long time!

This movie is one of the best. If it ever gets released on video, it possibly could be the film that helps Nick Moran get past Lock, Stock. What I mean is, perhaps everyone will stop refering to him as "That Guy From Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." Lock stock was a great film but it was four years ago...time to progress PEOPLE! Anyway, Christie Malry is a good film that everyone should see.