3.5 stars (out of 5)
Aussie writer/director Julius Avery’s first feature film is a seriously ambitious action drama with psychological complexity, harsh violence and beaut performances from an international cast led by Ewan McGregor, who works hard to get over his famous niceness.
19 year old JR (Brenton Thwaites) is imprisoned for six months and fears for his safety when he becomes the target of a bunch of drooling rapists. Trying hard to befriend Brendan (Ewan McGregor), Australia’s most feared criminal, he’s met with opposition at first, but eventually wins the older man over with some killer chess moves (and a little background knowledge of Bobby Fischer). Brendan and his cronies agree to look after the kid, but he’ll owe them when he gets out and, sure enough, when JR is released he winds up meeting with crime boss Sam (Jacek Koman), being assigned a beachfront home and warned that when a mobile phone rings he must answer it and do whatever he’s told. Dangerously smitten with Tasha (Swedish actress Alicia Vikander), one of Sam’s girls who’s as trapped as he is, JR is eventually called upon to assist in getting Brendan out of jail and involved in a dangerous heist, as the foolish lad starts to realise just how bad Sam and his mates truly are. And, well, duh.
Offering hard-hitting, sometimes bloody action sequences the likes of which aren’t usually seen in contemporary Australian fare, this is, as Avery keeps saying, an unashamed thrill-ride, and yet that rather downplays the strength of the performances and the intense and scary relationship between JR and Brendan. And Ewan again shows what a fine and generous actor he is, as he allows Thwaites to shine and makes Brendan so likeable we almost, at times, forget that he’s a complete bloody scumbag.
I Wake Up Screening 