Harry Brown

We've recently been saturated with a glut of violent revenge pix: The Brave One, Edge of Darkness, Gran Torino, Taken, even a Straw Dogs remake. These films generally work best as straight genre pieces. Inject them with sociological content, and you're skating on thin moral ice. Vigilantism is fine as a cinematic fantasy. As a serious statement, it's somewhere between stupid and dangerous.

Harry Brown (2009) is both pretentious and exceedingly derivative. A cross between Death Wish and Unforgiven, it might pass as middle-brow escapism if it stuck to revenge mechanics. But director Daniel Barber insists on infusing his story with ostentatious "significance" and quarter-baked social commentary. Only Michael Caine's commendable performance makes it worthwhile.

Harry Brown (Michael Caine) is a retired ex-Royal Marine who's recently lost his wife to terminal illness. When a street gang murders his friend Len (David Brown), Harry grows frustrated with the police inability to track his killers. Inevitably, Harry acquires a firearm and goes on a rampage, while the cops pursuing him (Emily Mortimer and Charlie Creed Miles) wonder if they oughtn't let him be.

Harry Brown works best as a character study. It has an intriguing protagonist, a geriatric man of action reluctantly drawn into crime fighting. But Gary Young's script sticks mostly to familiar elements, cribbing not only the plot but entire scenes from earlier revenge opuses. When Harry brutally tortures a thug, we can't help but think of Taken. If one character's big reveal is shocking, it's only because we haven't seen them enough to care.

Harry Brown has bigger fish to fry though, echoing Death Wish's sentiments that the greatest cure to societal ills is a handgun. Barber fleetingly explores London's social disquiet, most notably when a police raid triggers a violent riot. Mostly though, it's accepted that small-time thugs are best exterminated, by private citizens if the police aren't up to the task. Again I commend Zodiac for its dressing-down of these attitudes.

Barber's pretentious direction doesn't help. The movie revels in surface gloss, artsy camera work and digital splatter, but it all feels pointless show rather than organic. The biggest set piece, where Harry buys a gun from two crooks, is so drawn out and obsessed with grimy detail it becomes absurd. It's telling that the two most effective scenes - the cell phone-shot opening detailing a gang member's initiation, the riot - are detached from the main narrative.

Michael Caine singlehandedly carries the film. Watching the star of Get Carter and The Italian Job deal death to chavs is satisfying, but his character goes deeper than that. Caine never forgets to balance his heroics with humanization: one outing ends with Harry's hospitalization for emphysema. In early scenes especially, he registers more with a wounded look or tastefully-placed tears than most. Bravo Mr. Caine.

Caine's co-stars make zero impression. The lovely Emily Mortimer (Elizabeth) barely amounts to a "caring cop" cipher. Where's Helen Mirren or Geraldine Somerville when you need them? Liam Cunningham's (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) pivotal role is similarly underdeveloped. The criminals are interchangeable scum, depriving the story of any tension.

Harry Brown is effective neither as a revenge picture nor as a statement on law and order. However, it does earn a few points for Michael Caine's sterling performance.