A Violent look at Football Hooliganism with a Message

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2005)

I'll admit that I had lingering doubts going into this film. I was worried that Elijah would let that slight British twang that Frodo seems to have left him with, reappear, and spoil his believability as a Yank! I was worried that the ending scene would work like an alternate ending to All I Want! I was worried the anti-violent message of the film would go awry in the final scene!
I needn't have worried! I absolutely loved this movie! Yes, it is violent and bloody, but in away that is quite realistic without glamorizing or sanitizing it in any way. This is a far cry from those old movies where a shirtless Kirk Douglas gave someone a pounding, and emerged no more than a bit dusty, and with a tiny, almost sexy trickle of blood at one corner of his mouth. The makeup artists managed to convey the damage a fist will really do to a face, or as least as close to it as I need to see!
As an American, I struggled a bit with the heavy British accents. When I finally get my hands on a DVD I plan to watch it with sub-titles once so that I can catch the bits of dialog I missed because of the accents, but I didn't have any trouble following what was going on despite my tin ear.
If this worries any of you as to the reception for the film by American audiences, you can relax! I spoke with a handful of other audience members, and we ended up listing all the movies we could think of that had made big splashes with American audiences despite thick British accents. None of them thought the strong accents were any reason for the film to be held back, and neither do I.
There was one scene where Pete explains to Matt about the firms which came off rather awkwardly, as exposition scenes are often want to do. Nevertheless, I think it provides all the explanation American audiences will need to enjoy the movie.
All of the actors were quite good I thought. Claire Forlani's emotional performance rang very true. Leo Gregory was excellent, managing to make me loathe him, and then breaking my heart all in one film! Charlie Hunnam was good, but in that naturalistic way that makes it look as though no actual acting is going on! And I thought Elijah was excellent as always. I particularly enjoyed the eyebrow acting during the scene in which Matt tries to call his father and gets an answering machine instead. I also loved his scenes with Claire, and there was one in particular where I felt he got to convey how much Matt had grown in the course of the film, indeed in the course of a few harrowing moments.
Some have said that they found the end scene in which Matt confronts Jeremy Van Holden to be gratuitous, but I did not. I liked Matt demonstrating the he was not to be messed with, while stopping short of physical harm, and it wrapped up the movie's theme nicely for me.
I had the privilege of seeing this film at a small film festival in Los Angeles. It has yet to net an American distribution deal, but I have high hopes that it soon will.