[Pseudo Freya-dæg] Take Care Strolling Down This Boulevard

Introduction
Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

{Any movie that shows what might have happened to Professor Lupin in his later years and gives him lines like “see, you’re not allowed to do more than one thing, which is why a polymath, such as myself, prefers to do nothing,” can’t be all bad...right?}

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Introduction

Last night’s MC-ing gig at the L-Lounge in Kitchener, Ontario went well, considering so much of my part was ad-libbed, but did the movie I watched the day before - London Boulevard go just as well? Let's find out.

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Plot Summary

A gangster by the name of Mitch (Colin Farrell) is released from prison and tries his damndest to escape the gangster life he once knew. Despite taking on a fairly regular job keeping the paparazzi away from a lovely young model known as Charlotte (Keira Knightley), he is unable to escape the seedy underworld that he was once a part of and, ultimately, his criminal doings come full circle.

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The Good

The style that a lot of critics (such as Joe Neumaier, Jesse Cataldo, and Donald Levit) see obscuring the movie’s substance is definitely present, but it doesn’t overwhelm the movie’s substance as much as they claim. Instead the style of the movie sets it apart from other gangster movies and glosses over the clichés that are used, making them less apparent.

The movie's style also lends itself well to some very intense scenes. In particular, the funeral scene and the abandoned parking garage scene where we see how brutal Rob (Mitch and Billy’s boss, Gant) can be are excellent examples of just how engrossing this movie can be - even though they’re intensity is in opposing areas.

Similar to the intensity that the movie’s style builds, the expression of that style through Mitch’s actions and words also makes for some elegantly brutal scenes of violence. Mitch is supposed to be trying to get away from the criminal life, but almost all of the fight scenes in this movie would be enough to make a certain character played by a young Malcolm McDowell weep for joy.

Mitch’s attempt to clean up his act by taking a bodyguard job isn’t anything new, but at the least it’s not often that a model is the person being protected in these movies. Singers or actresses, sure, but models usually don’t get that kind of treatment. Curiously Charlotte's presence is also what introduces some interesting psychological and sociological theory into the movie.

For it's Charlotte who lobs lines like “I don't want them to have your photograph, they can't have you;” a quasi-meta speech about how all women’s roles in movies are focused on getting the male character to talk; and whose presence in the story combined with her struggle with the paparazzi suggests an underlying question of the power of the media’s eye.

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The Bad

Conversely, Charlotte’s presence in the story is also problematic. Not necessarily for reasons of coherence, but of cohesion.

The reason that the movie lacks a strongly united story is the presence of five different subplots. We’ve got Mitch and Billy (Mitch's old criminal life), Mitch and Joe, Mitch and Gant (Mitch's new criminal life), Mitch and Charlotte, and Mitch and his sister. In the end all of these threads are gathered up, but rather than being wound together into a rope they wind up being more of a very stylish frayed end - the kind of homemade rope that a clever artist might put out as a piece of modern art.

The subplots involving Mitch and Gant, and Mitch and Charlotte are fine since they’re almost entirely contained within the movie. The other three, however, are not, and except for the story with his sister, they really should have been.

Knowing Mitch’s history with Billy would have made much of his motivation later in the movie clearer, and it would have helped him to become a more complete character. Instead of having these gaps filled, though the audience is left guessing at just what happened between them before Mitch was sent to prison. A fairly decent guess can be made, but nothing is certain on this front.

Another blow to the full development of Mitch's character is delivered by the subplot between him and Joe. It plays out nicely enough, but we're never given a clear reason why Mitch cares so much about Joe - so much so that he calls in a favor to give Joe a proper burial, even though Mitch knows that doing so is dangerous.

Also, and this is a problem caused by having so many different subplots as well as the movie’s stylish presentation, there’s no rest offered to viewers at all throughout the movie. Almost every scene ends in the middle of some motion or other, and just as often the next scene starts in media res.

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Judgment

London Boulevard offers a visual and aural spectacular not based on special effects and CGI, but on interesting cinematography, lighting, choreography, a great soundtrack, and crackling dialog. It’s also a great gangster movie, but just not cohesive enough to be an great movie in general.

Still, a movie doesn’t have to be objectively great to be saved from the rotting piles of terrible movies on the dread fields of the panned-film plains, it just has to have enough good to redeem itself. And London Boulevard has that and a little more.

So, Freya, swoop on down and take this one by the arms, it'll appreciate the ride.

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Closing

Come Monday, the first entry of a new four part series will be posted and on Wednesday there'll be an article on the newest news.

On Friday, in honor the upcoming Victoria Day holiday, I'm going to attempt something that even the Grandmother of Europe herself might have feared - I'm going to see if there's enough good to outweigh the bad in Manos: The Hands of Fate.

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