Deathwatch film review

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DEATHWATCH

Two years ago, Jamie Bell was on top of the world and collecting awards by the armful for his captivating performance as young dreamer Billy Elliot. He even beat Hollywood heavyweights Tom Hanks and Russell Crowe to the BAFTA Award as Best Actor. How times have changed.

His eagerly awaited follow-up, Deathwatch, is one of the worst British films this year, and the young actor's performance is anything but compelling.

The blame rests solely with writer-director Michael J Bassett, who spends almost the entire budget on explosions, special effects and a smoke machine, and has somehow forgotten to cobble together a coherent screenplay.

Allied and German troops face each on the Western Front in 1917 in northern Europe. Private Charlie Shakespeare (Bell) is among a group of British soldiers who storm an enemy trench and hold the position against the advancing Germans. However, something evil has leeched into the blood-soaked earth and the longer the men stay in the warren of muddy tunnels, the more unnerved they become.

First, Captain Jennings (Laurence Fox) executes one of his own men and communications officer Private Bradford (Hugh O'Conor) goes AWOL, then the remaining men turn on one another in a brutal fight to the death. As the platoon numbers dwindle, Charlie is forced to put his fear aside and bring the men together before the ghosts of fallen soldiers kill them all.

The special effects department shrouds the action sequences in a dense cloud of smoke, highlighting the artificiality of the situation: the setting may as well be a high school playing field for all we can actually see. Bassett can't decide whether he's making a horror film, a psychological thriller or a wartime drama and consequently tries to pitch Deathwatch somewhere between all three, which will please no one. The skittish scripting results in wooden performances and some wild overacting from Andy Serkis as the bully of the group.

Deathwatch also suffers from a complete lack of suspense, culminating in a confused ending which appears to have been re-shot at the last minute (which may explain why Bell's hair grows three inches in the space of one scene). War may be hell but sitting through Deathwatch is purgatory.