London Boulevard

The premise of this film sounded fairly good. Mitchell (Colin Farrell) is released from jail and attempts to start a new life on the straight and narrow. His attempts are thwarted by his friends (including Ben Chaplin) and a local gangster, Gant (Ray Winstone). Thrown into the mix is a reclusive movie star (Keira Knightley) hiding from the constant attention of the press.

This film is dire. Colin Farrell seems like a bored man walking around saying his lines. The only time he appears to have any life is when he flips into fury. The \"romance\" between him and Keira Knightley is frankly surprising considering the lack of any chemistry between them. I didn't care for any of the characters and as the body count rose I hoped for a swift end to the film. Unlike other gangster films this seemed to be all style and no actual direction.

The screenwriter is also the director and producer, William Monahan. He wrote the screenplay for Edge of Darkness and The Departed which are both great films but as a director and producer he fails miserably, seemingly unable to give the actors any kind of help in making their dialogue come alive. The only character who at points I looked forward to seeing was David Thewlis but this is probably down to the fact he's a pretty good actor with much more range than most of his co-stars. London Boulevard wants to be a great British gangster film but fails on every level. You'd probably be better off reading the book.