Starred Up
(2013)
(SPOILERS) Jack O’Connell can do no wrong right now, it
seems. Except maybe taking a supporting role in a 300 prequel. In the space of a couple of years he’s earned his
place as the next big British star. The trio of Starred Up, ’71 and Unbroken (Angelina came-a-calling) have
cemented a rightfully acclaimed reputation as an immediate and visceral
performer. He’s got gigs with Jodie Foster and (maybe, touch wood) Terry
Gilliam coming up; it’s probably just as well he didn’t land Reed Richards.
Which is a round about way of getting to his performance in Starred Up. It’s a powerhouse turn, one
that almost, but ultimately can’t, make up for a movie unable to decide if it’s
a serious picture about rehabilitation or your shiv-wielding genre staple
replete with vicious guards, duplicitous prison overlords (not Noel Coward), and psycho wardens.
What’s surprising about this, perhaps, is that screenwriter
Jonathan Asser has based the picture on his own experiences working with
offenders. There’s definitely a sense of a more engaged picture emerging from
the folds of a standard nick thriller every time we enter the session groups. Oliver
(Rupert Friend) comes into the incarceration situation almost unbelievably ill
equipped; he’s well-educated and intimidated. The sort of guy who wouldn’t last
five minutes in stir. So we’re as curious as Eddie (O’Connell) about why his
group seem so devoted to his methods. And why he is seized to help Eddie in
particular.
In tandem with this is the set up of Eddie being
incarcerated with his lifer dad Neville (Ben Mendelsohn), a man disinclined to
give the son he’s hardly seen any special treatment, but who nevertheless feels
the paternal bond. Neville’s inability to express himself (his one attendance
at the group leads to its dissolution) is effective, but there’s a strong sense
of great performances overcoming the artifice of the set up here. Eddie has
come up from young offenders prison for being too much of a handful (“starred
up”) and seems set to cause similar disruption. Prison Mr Big Dennis (Peter
Ferdinando, memorable as the Black Knight in the none-too memorable Snow White and the Huntsman) instructs
Neville to mentor Eddie, so his son’s behaviour doesn’t disrupt the dirty business
line Dennis has going with the crook deputy governor Haynes (Sam Spruell).
From that, it may seem as if there’s a lot going on. And
there is, too much really. Just a film about Oliver’s anger management classes could have been fascinating; even a film where the focus is as much on the
malign bureaucracy of those who don’t want to help offenders as on the offender
(Eddie) himself. I don’t think Neville’s presence, as good as Mendelsohn is, is
strictly necessary. It brings additional elements of melodrama that undercut
the more serious themes. Along with the standard prison tropes, this helps turn
Starred Up into another exploitation
picture.
The final scenes between father and son are touching, but
Asser and director David Mackenzie (whose career has been on the unfocussed
side, material-wise) precede this an action-packed, adrenalised finale that
speaks the message “there’s nothing quite so effective for bringing a dad and
his boy together as beating 7 shades of shit out of some screws”. Mackenzie
even douses the attempted hanging of Eddie in a red filter and adds an eerie,
horror-movie soundtrack. Spruell’s Deputy Governor may as well be Donald
Sutherland in Lock Up, so unspeakably motiveless Machiavellian is he.
And there are the signs of a screenplay that bends itself every
which way in order to meet the demands of the moment. Eric’s eloquent insights
into his situation and those around him show an empathy beyond his boundless
rage, and suggest he’s in touch with his inner self before he starts attending Oliver’s groups. Indeed, when he enrages
Oliver, who admits he wants to hurt him, Eric agrees to come to the meeting following
the tritest of exchanges (“Good, now
we’re getting somewhere”). Stallone could have been so subtle.
On the other hand, the therapy sessions are engrossing, and
extremely well performed (one thing I can’t fault here are the performances).
Anthony Welsh, David Ajala, Ashley Chin and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr are there for
the necessary induction (“It can take a
session or two to get used to it”), so it’s a shame that, just as we are
gaining an insight into Asser’s method, he decides to move onto matters more
lugubrious.
Unfortunately, Starred
Up allows the clichés to win out. If it were that kind of film through-and-through,
this wouldn’t matter. But Asser really appeared to have his mind on higher
things (I’m less sure of Mackenzie’s motives). What are we to take away when
Oliver loses his temper with the warden and so kills his programme? It makes
for a dramatic scene, but it serves to undermine his process. Maybe Eric and
his fellow groupies will make better situations for themselves due to Oliver’s
influence, but in the end the focus is more on father-son reconciliation. The
authenticity of filming in an actual prison is resounding in terms of the
overall mood and atmosphere, but it isn’t as if that’s a rarity for banged up
cinema. If Asser had the courage of his characters’ convictions, Starred Up might have really got its
teeth into something. Instead, it gets down tearing new holes.
