Harry Brown
Directed by Daniel Barber
- thriller
- crime
- drama
- action
The story
An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend's murder by doling out his own form of justice.
What it’s like
Grim, rain-soaked London concrete in washed-out greys and sickly sodium-orange, the estates shot in grimy, handheld-leaning frames that keep the viewer close to the stairwells, underpasses and graffitied walls. The palette is cold and dim, with flashes of hospital fluorescence and the dark mouth of a subway tunnel, and the sound is a heavy, pulsing synth-and-bass score over ambient traffic, sirens and the hiss of rain. Its vibe is bleak, tense and simmering, a late-night watch where unease builds slowly before erupting. The pacing is measured through long stretches of quiet grief and surveillance, then sudden bursts of street confrontation. Intensity is high: frequent, brutal violence including stabbings and shootings, murder, drug-dealing menace, and a riot sequence, with the harm shown plainly rather than stylised. The emotional register is grim and mournful, following a lonely widower whose grief hardens into cold resolve. This suits viewers who want a hard-edged, morally uneasy urban thriller, not anything gentle or comforting.
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