Drama filmsReviewThe ever-watchable Stephen Graham isn’t enough to save this gloomy and insubstantial British drama
This gloomily lit drama (shot in Newcastle, seemingly on the darkest day of the year, with only a sputtering 20w bulb for illumination) revolves around Benjamin (Stephen Graham), who was once a proud son of an Orthodox Jewish community but now finds himself on the edges of its society. Benjamin has been semi cast out for pursuing his passion for boxing – now indulged for money in grubby illegal bare-knuckle fights – and for marrying a non-Jew (Rebecca Callard). He reaps yet more grief when he agrees to help his slimy goy manager (Michael Smiley) burn down a slum property, owned, it just so happens, by the menacing leader of the Orthodox community (Christopher Fairbank, channelling a cross between Don Corleone and Fagin).
It’s absurd material, very obviously overstretched, beyond breaking point, from its origins as a short. But Graham is as watchable as always, even when working with this tattered script.
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