Harry Brown (2009) - 3/4

Apparently in Britain's inner cities all youth is irredeemably evil and all the elderly are kind old souls. At least that's what Harry Brown would have a North American like me believe, because it depicts a nightmarish world where gangs of young men coincide on a random target and mete out horrendous violence. Perhaps this monochromatic world was necessary for the social criticism(s) at hand; but perhaps a more subtle social criticism is lost along with this ambiguity.

Harry Brown is about a pensioner (Michael Caine) who lives the most mundane life the writer-director could conceive an old man named 'Harry Brown' leading. His long-comatosed wife has just died, a gang of youth has murdered his best friend and now the sympathetic homicide detective Frampton (Emily Mortimer) tells him it's possible the murderers will only get manslaughter. Harry, a veteran Marine once stationed in Norther Ireland, decides to take justice into his own hands and what ensues is a pretty brutal thriller as Harry hunts down any thuggish sort he spots in the group by the subway tunnel, whether they were involved in his friend's death or not.

Director Daniel Barber certainly encourages the viewer to sympathize entirely with Harry's mission. The first twenty minutes of the film heap upon Harry all the geriatric pathos that could be mustered and then some. Each youth is shown to be so irredeemably heinous that we the audience are implicated in the their murder by approving of Harry's actions. I found myself torn between my moral sense that these are young men, nearly boys, who never had much of a chance in life and the film's encouragement that I be thrilled Harry is taking out the trash--and these people are trash, believe me. Only a single character, Frampton, who perpetually looks like a puppy who just got her paw in the door, voices any moral concern; the film does not come down on her side. It is entirely on the side of the vigilante. There are two parallel scenes that show the ineffectuality of police interrogation compared to Harry's interrogation. That's where Harry Brown the film stands.

The overwhelming message of the film is that these young thugs have no purpose, no cause; they're just bored. All the crimes they do are done for entertainment. They record murders on their phones to watch for amusement. They record rapes. The get kicks out of threatening to shoot a mother pushing her stroller. Harry, as a veteran, represents a time when violence was used for a cause and when that cause is gone, it stops and is compartmentalized. To Barber's credit, however, he doesn't remove all moral ambiguity. The point is raised, but not given much attention, that Harry is killing people who had nothing to do with his friend's death. They are killed simply out of Harry's moral outrage. Of course, one wonders if justice for a seventy-five-year-old man really warrants the deaths of half-a-dozen twenty-year-olds. Could that really be Harry's full motive? I doubt it; this isn't a pure revenge picture. There is also a lingering question that is never explored: Harry never does wait for the police investigation to conclude; he simply turns vigilante. Once he has the evidence on the cell phone, he can prove that it was at least second degree murder. Instead, he keeps on with his vigilantism.

There are two things that makes the film, with its harsh worldview, work: albeit morally questionable it is undeniably entertaining to watch Harry hunting and overpowering these scummy characters. But most importantly, it has Michael Caine. Despite the pathos overload in the first act, which even makes the elementary mistake of showing Harry crying--twice!, Michael Caine's exceptional performance makes it work. Harry is a man burdened with moral anguish and he feels the responsibility to do something about it, despite his tired, old body's reluctance. So he locks himself into his old, wartime mentality. It's not the most subtle character Caine's ever interpreted, to be sure, which makes the subtlety Caine himself brings to the role all the more welcome. When Harry is at his weakest, Caine conveys his inner strength and when Harry is at his most dominant, Caine conveys his fragility.

This is Barber's first feature, but his confident style shows his abundant experience from directing commercials. He's certainly a name to watch out for. Harry Brown is a remarkable debut feature.