London to Brighton film review

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LONDON TO BRIGHTON

Paul Andrew Williams' stunning directorial debut heralds the arrival of a major new talent on the British film scene. Made on a shoestring budget, London to Brighton is a terrifically tense thriller which is sublimely edited and benefits from a clever script and a first rate cast of unknown actors. Watch out Shane Meadows - the competition is finally coming.

With a style that calls to mind the British new wave and the coolness of the French nouvelle vague, Williams - who also penned the script - opens his film with an arresting scene in which a woman and a girl crash into a toilet in Victoria station in the middle of the night. The woman is Kelly (Lorraine Stanley) and the girl is Joanne (Georgia Groome) - Kelly sporting bruises and a black eye, Georgia crying her eyes out. They are on the run from a man named Derek, and as their story unfolds through a series of well-crafted flashbacks, the viewer embarks on one of the most exciting British cinematic rides in years.

Derek (Johnny Harris) is a lowlife pimp working out of a grimy London flat and willing to obtain any type of girl for his clients if the price is right. Unscrupulous and prone to flashes of extreme violence, he is also a spineless coward who cracks as soon as he is threatened, relying on his silent sidekick Chum (Nathan Constance) to do his dirty work for him.

Thanks to Tom Hemmings' expert editing and the relentless gusto of Willams' script, this is a hugely satisfying experience. And if casting is one of the most important jobs a director can do then Williams has been blessed by a collection which has no weak links. Nathan Constance's Chum wavers as Derek's demands become more and more threatening, while Johnny Harris' Derek is simply a great screen villain: one which would love to aspire to Bob Hoskins' Harold Shand in The Long Good Friday but in reality is an ineffectual and weak as Paddy Considine's Morell in A Room for Romeo Brass.

The two female leads are equally impressive: Lorraine Stanley evokes the streetwise hustler as Kelly and shows great depth when things don't go as planned, while newcomer Georgia Groome is sensational in the most difficult role of the runaway who finds herself growing up fast in the space of one day.