When a TV series continues with a movie, it is best when it can do two things at once, be a satisfying return to the story and characters of the show for the fans, and a stand alone story for newcomers. I've never watched Peaky Blinders so I cannot speak to the former, but on the latter I can say The Immortal Man succeeds. For the uninitiated like me The Immortal Man clearly sets out its premise and who the characters are sufficiently to be able to tell its story and draw us in, offering an engaging wartime gangster story that packs an emotional punch.
This is a story about reckoning. A man with a past filled with evil is forced to face his ghosts, sometimes quite literally. He has failed himself and many in his life, including a son, and that consequences of that spiral out for him personally, for his larger community, all the way to the fate of a world war. Like most crime stories it is a cautionary tale, the costs of making deals with the devil. So what we're seeing here may not be that new. It is the way the story rolls out that makes it interesting.
The cast here in one of its strengths. From the returning cast of the series to new additions Barry Keoghan and Rebeccca Ferguson, there is a high quality to the performances here. The story is operatic in its scope and takes many dramatic liberties so to make it work the performances need to be on point. Director Harper brings just the right mix of flare and emotional substance to the story keeping the film rather cinematic for a movie that continues the story of a TV series.
From what I understand the film continues the series' focus on how the marginalization of populations contributes to the rise in organized crime. A society that doesn't offer anything to huge parts of its population but subjugation is inviting their retaliation. This film's story does that while also drawing the parallel on the personal level, the reckoning of the father and the son he abandons. The Immortal Man gives us the opportunity to wrestle with these struggles while telling its melodramatic story.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Sophie Rundle, Barry Keoghan, Stephen Graham, Packy Lee
Director: Tom Harper
Writer: Steven Knight
No comments:
Post a Comment