Film Review: The Escapist

Liverpool Daily Post

Image from the film, The Escapist _320

THE ESCAPIST (Cert. 15, 102 mins)
Stars: Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Seu Jorge, Dominic Cooper, Steven Mackintosh, Damian Lewis, Bernadette McKenna, Eleanor McLynn
Directed by Rupert Wyatt

FREEDOM is just a state of mind in The Escapist, a prison break thriller that attempts to breathe new life into the genre.

Director Rupert Wyatt and co-writer Daniel Hardy exploit our preconceptions, apparently abiding by convention as a motley crew of criminals orchestrate their hare- brained scheme to escape from prison.

However, nothing is quite what it first appears and the writers have an ace up their sleeve for the film’s dying moments.

The architect of the bold breakout is Frank Perry (Brian Cox), a lifer content to spend the rest of his days behind bars until he learns that his 20-year-old daughter is a junkie. Desperate to save her, he concocts a plan to break through the panelling at the back of the chapel confessional then descend into the bowels of the facility.

The Escapist hides behind its fractured chronology, ricocheting back and forth before the cocky final twist and homo-eroticism blows through every corner of the jail.

Cox, right, brings a brooding intensity to his role, but other members of the escape team aren’t sketched in any real detail. Joseph Fiennes, in particular, should be sent down for a woeful accent.

Wyatt shoots on location at Kilmainham Jail, in Dublin, and in a disused London underground station for pivotal scenes of the escape bid, as the men run along live tracks just as trains come into service. That’s one way to beat the rush-hour commute.