Harry Brown - dvd review

Michael Caine's Harry is an unlikely vigilante in this tainted and brutally honest movie set in London's 'the elephant and castle district. He's an old man who's just lost his wife after her very long illness. He's diligently visited her daily taking the long way to avoid the hoodlums that ruin the estate housing he lives in.

All he has left is his good mate he plays chess with down at the club. But Leonard played by the wonderful David Bradley starts to tell him of his suspensions of the bartender in the pub and the gang that is harassing him. He's decided to carry a weapon since the police is no help. The next thing Harry knows, the cops wake him up to tell him about Leo's death in the tunnel.

Harry being a retired marine decides to avenge his friends death. The movie has some rather gritty and violent moments. Emily Mortimer plays the policewoman trying to help Harry.

Sean Harris as the scariest hardcore junkie ever!

I kept hoping Marky would be saved, somehow for a better life than what he had.

This movie has some astonishing scenes, especially with Sean Harris as Stretch, and SKINS' Jack O'Connell as Marky. Such chilling performances. Also the movie is filmed with such grace and grit. It exposes Harry's sincere living habits yet the gruff atmosphere of the outside world.

Ben Drew

You just can't help but root for Harry. With all the recent violent riots of London, this film really gives an inside look of the mayhem the people who live there as well as what the police face. This is a dark yet real film.



STORYLINE: In England, retired marine Harry Brown spends his lonely life between the hospital, where his beloved wife Kath is terminally ill, and playing chess with his only friend Leonard Attwell in the Barge pub owned by Sid Rourke. After the death of Kath, Len tells his grieving friend that the local gang is harassing him and he is carrying an old bayonet for self-defense; the widower suggests him to go to the police. When Len is beaten, then stabbed to death in an underground passage, Inspector Alice Frampton and her partner Sergeant Terry Hicock are sent to investigate. They pay Harry a visit but don't have good news; the police have not found any other evidence, other than the bayonet, in order to arrest the hoodlums. This mean that should the case go to trial the gang would claim self-defense. Harry Brown sees that justice will not be granted and decides to take matters into his own hands.

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