Harry Brown (Cert 18, 103 mins)
Stars: Sir Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Iain Glen, Liam Cunningham, Ben Drew, Jack O'Connell, David Bradley
Directed by Daniel Barber
Rating: 4/5

IN THESE dark and depressing times, unlikely heroes make a stand against the savagery of the streets.

For Daniel Barber’s brutal and uncompromising directorial debut, that hero is a retired Marine, Harry Brown, whose best friend dies at the hands of a gang of yobs. The old-timer vows revenge in the only language these young men and women know: punishment.

Sir Michael Caine delivers one of his finest performances for years.

Harry Brown is an incredibly accomplished debut for British director Barber.

The film strikes very few false emotional notes, emboldened by Caine’s fearless and mesmerising lead performance as a man with nothing to lose, who may very well pay with his life as he doles out tough justice.

Gary Young’s script focuses almost entirely on Leonard through a grimy lens, but there are odd glimmers of wry humour, such as when Frampton’s (Emily Mortimer) superior DI Andrew Childs (Iain Glen) deadpans incredulously: “You’re telling me this escalating violence is the result of a vigilante pensioner?”

Scenes of violence are graphic and unsettling, punctuating a narrative that doesn’t pretend to hold any easy answers to 21st-century social malaise. Britain is gravely ill and there is no cure in sight.