Tyrannosaur

2011 hasn't been a great year for movies. In fact I'm struggling to think of a film that has blown me away but just as you start lose faith a film comes along that knocks you bandy. Tyrannosaur is that film.

This is a grim film. Grim in every way but where there is despair there is always a chink of light and Tyrannosaur is all about that little chink of light.

Joseph is an angry man . A very angry man. A man who's life is not good. When he's life is at it's worst he accidentally comes across a good Samaritan in Hannah who see's the good in people yet in reality is having a far worse time than Joseph.

I have to say that the performance of Olivia Colman has to be the best i have seen by any actor this year. A quite stunning portrayal of a battered woman who has nothing good in her life yet always has a smile for someone. Peter Mullan is fantastic also and it goes without saying that Eddie Marsden is brilliant.

Writer and director Paddy Constantine should be proud of what he has done here and i cant recommend this film highly enough and if this does not pick up awards in the new year then there is no justice.

Seeing "Tyrannosaur" is an experiment of life: the reality described is not so different from the everyday life of many of us.

Mr. Considine is able to realise, thanks to a perfect script and superb actors, a small masterpiece and a perfect debut.

The story set in a Leeds of charity shops and pubs, tells the anger, frustration, domestic violence, so common in this early-century England.

Over time we learn that the request for aid between the main characters becomes mutual, up to a finale as unexpected as disturbing.

Well done to everyone, but honour to Peter Mullan about holding the entire film with a surprising force and fragility.

Highly recommended.

Recently Hollywood and the various film industries across the globe have seen an upsurge in the amount of on-screen performers who are taking a break from acting in front of the camera to instead take control from behind it. Paddy Considine, the star of 'This is England' and 'Dead Man's Shoes,' is now a member of this increasingly growing club with his first feature-film debut 'Tyrannosaur'. Written and Directed by Considine, this is an uncompromising debut film from the former photographer, which examines the destructive effects of violence and aggressive behaviour on the lives of two different individuals who are drawn together through their developing friendship.

Joseph (Peter Mullan) is a lonely, cynical, and belligerent working class man. He spends his days drinking alone in the Pub and gambling in the local bookmakers where his only friends reside. Violent and abusive outbursts govern his existence thereby creating a solitary creature who acts on instinct rather than reasoning. However, Joseph's life changes when he meets and befriends Hannah (Olivia Colman), a local Christian woman who is constantly being verbally and physically abused by her sadistic husband James (Eddie Marsan). Both tortured souls, they find solace in each other's lives and develop a friendship which transcends their misgivings.

'Tyrannosaur' is an uncompromising, and at times, difficult film to watch as the characters' lives are laid bare for the whole audience to observe. Joseph responds to problematic situations through the use of his fists, while Hannah simply acts out of fear and denial. Both Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman give fantastic performances; Mullan is initially a brutish, vagrant looking male who can't naturally become entwined in society, but as the film develops, empathy begins to grow for a man who accepts his short-comings and the fact that he may never be able to overcome them. With humanity arising slowly from his dishevelled face through his relationship with the young, neighbourhood boy Sam (Samuel Bottomley).

While Colman's striking performance, which is far-cry away from her role on the hit British comedy series 'Peep Show,' shows a woman who is conflicted in all manner of her beliefs. Her religious beliefs give her the naivety to believe that her husband can change, while her heart knows that he will only stop hurting her when her beatings become fatal. This is most notable in the scene where James breaks down in tears at her feet after striking out at Hannah, as she cradles his head he constantly professes his love for her repeating the phrase "it won't happen again, you know it won't happen again." Hannah constantly reaffirms his worries saying that she does love him, but as she lowers his head, the camera observes her changing emotions as the audience is shown that Hannah is clearly not a woman in love with James, but instead she is simply afraid of him.

Considine's first directorial effort is certainly a competent effort, he never attempts to direct the audience's attention too far from the script or the two central performances at hand, but this itself is the film's primary flaw. While it is captivating and emotionally unsettling, it is also a narrative which is not uncommon in modern British cinema (or known to some as 'miserable British cinema'), and it portrays the same judgements and ideals as many of its predecessors did before without providing anything new to the sub-genre at hand, especially in the culmination of the sub-plot involving the young boy Sam and his neglectful mother and boyfriend.

Despite its unoriginality in the narrative's conclusive mediation, the film still manages to evoke a strong emotional response from the viewer through its combination of horrifying visuals and fragile performances from the two lead British actors, as Paddy Considine begins his feature film journey with a solid and respectable character portrait of two broken individuals.

You have an anger, frenzy, torture that consumes, from every orifice a poison floods then flumes, overwhelming, uncontained - all your pasts ingrained and chained, the smallest spark enough to ignite, raging fumes. An encounter with a lost and lonely soul, you start to gain some self-constraint, take back control, she presents as being normal, soon find out she has turmoil, a reflection of your broken, distressed whole. Time is found to help this woman in distress, though you're too late for a young lad who's been regressed, events take consequences, in a world that's lost its senses, this is a bleak and soul destroying, dark abyss.

Out of this world performances.

Tyrannosaur was a tough and sometimes brutal film to watch. It's unsettling to watch both of these characters unravel. The best thing about it was the performances. Peter Mullan was great, but it was Olivia Colman who really stood out. Her character transformation was completely believable, and she was a powerhouse. To me, she was the driving force behind this film. The film takes some really unexpected turns in her character's arc, and by the time its over, it felt more like her film than Mullan's. As of now, she stands as one of the best performances of the year, and I hope many people take notice. Overall, definitely recommended, especially for Colman