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There are lots of British movies of lately, that focus on youngsters and life on the streets, in the lesser posh areas of the big cities. I have seen plenty of those movies this past year and I have to say that this is absolutely one of the better ones. That's still not saying much though, since most of them were absolutely terrible ones.

And there also are still plenty of problems with this movie as well. But regardless of that, it really remains a good enough movie to watch, even though it ultimately still is a very forgettable one.

That's a part of the problem with this movie; it just doesn't leave a big impact. The movie isn't as raw and confronting as it seems to think it is, which is mostly due to its somewhat lacking script.

Watching this movie isn't a very involving experience. You never really get a sense of true despair, fear, or anything else along those lines, like you normally would expect from a movie that's filled with poverty, crime and tons of shady characters and with a realistic overall style to it. This is all partly due to it that the movie isn't featuring a strong enough main plot line, or conflict if you will, in it. It's hard to ever feel involved with all of the story-developments and characters because the drama in it falls sort of flat, all throughout.

Perhaps it feels a bit too much like the movie is holding back with its drama. As if it was afraid to fall into some of the genre trappings, some other similar movies suffered heavily from in the past. The sort of forced drama, that created false, cheap sentiments and some highly unlikely twist and developments, that could take you out of the movie. But doing hardly any tough drama is no good solution either, as this movie clearly demonstrates. You need to give the viewers at least something to care and feel for at some point, which this movie just never really succeeds at.

It's also focusing too much on just its two main characters. Sure, it's featuring plenty of other characters in it but none of them are ever really given a good enough background and the movie doesn't give you enough reasons to ever care for any of them neither. It's a missed opportunity really and it so easily could have given the movie some depth and provided it with some more and better drama as well.

It still remains a well made movie though, especially in regard to its look. It's competently directed by Sally El Hosaini and has a fast and pleasant pace to it. It at least has the right sort of realistic look, though it's obviously at the same time still lacking the right sort of feeling to it.

Main thing that still is pulling this movie over is its acting. The movie has some good casting and it's the sort of movie that feels like its starring some non-actors in it and real youngster from the street instead. This is actually not true though. All of the characters are played by some actual actors but they simply do a great job at playing their parts and to give the movie an overall good sense of realism and credibility.

Not great but ultimately a still perfectly watchable little movie.

6/10

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About Frank Veenstra

Watches movies...writes about them...and that's it for now.
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