London Boulevard

Colin Farrell plays Mitchell, a loveable bad boy fresh out of jail, who is hired to protect Kiera Knightley’s character Charlotte, a beautiful British starlet, hounded and harassed by the press. Neither actor is exactly playing against type, but the pair form an unlikely cinematic duo that somehow seems to work, contrasting Farrell’s mockney toughness with Knightley’s aristocratic fragility.

With stars this good looking, romance is inevitable. However, whist Mitchell is keen to put his life of crime behind him, there are forces larger than himself, in the shape of Ray Winstone, insisting that he stay in the game. Not only is Mitchell deliberately made into an accessory to a crime, but he begins to fear that everyone close to him could be in danger, including his sister Briony (Friel). In the hope that the gangsters don’t get wise to his new love interest, Mitchell persuades Charlotte to leave the country, promising to join her after he has sorted out a few things…

Writer and director William Monahan, who wrote Body of Lies and The Departed, has adapted this from the novel by Ken Bruen, which itself draws on the nourish atmosphere of the legendary Sunset Boulevard. The cast boasts some of the most prominent British talent of the moment; as well as the names already mentioned, Eddie Marsan (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), Jamie Campbell Bower (Sweeney Todd), Stephen Graham (This is England) and David Thewlis (Lupin in the Harry Potter series) all provide supporting roles. This all-star line up presents this film as rather more refined than previous London gangster dramas, but lacking none of the energy, intensity and excitement that we have come to expect from this genre.

Shoshana Eilon