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Brian Cox successfully plays prisoner Frank Perry in the Escapist |
Camden Movie Reviews | Escapist | Rupert Wyatt | British | Brian Cox |
ESCAPIST
Directed by Rupert Wyatt
Certificate 15
THE first 20 minutes of this British prison break drama will make you groan. It appears to be heading down a well-trodden path, a plot structure that is the product of the legacy left by Guy Ritchie’s stylised gangster flicks.
London hardmen abound, grunting clichés at each other as they flex muscles under crisp white vests.
But there is something about the lead character, Frank Perry – old, overweight, with a gentle Ulster accent – and his motivation that sends signals that this film is going to blossom into something altogether different, and thankfully it does. The cliché-ridden acts soon disappear as an enthralling thriller develops.
Perry (Brian Cox) is a likeable, long-term lag, not in a chummy Fletch way, but in the fact that his incarceration has created an introspective character who has a clearly defined sense of right and wrong. He is aware that he has harmed society in the past and is paying the price through serving life. It is a thoughtful and understated performance from Cox. He makes Frank’s story feel real and moving.
We learn his daughter, who has refused contact with him for nearly 15 years, has grown up into a troubled young woman. A heroin addict, she has recently been hospitalised through an overdose. Frank knows what drugs do for you and is desperate to have some form of contact with her before it’s too late. With no visits or parole likely, he turns to drastic measures.
Escaping from a prison might be hard, but soon the wing’s internal politics conspire to make it harder and a sensitive thriller emerges.
The Escapist becomes a philosophical consideration of the withdrawal of freedom. It portrays the brutalities of the prison system, the characters showing an understanding of the tragedy of human consciousness.
It does not glamorise life behind bars, is no sentimental Shawshank Redemption buddy buddy movie, and is the opposite of the Vinnie Jones bad-man flick.
By the end a serious message about hope and personal freedom develops, in the manner of The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs or Arthur Koestler’s Darkness At Noon.
Strong supporting performances from Damian Lewis and Joseph Fiennes add. The Escapist is sad, sober and very watchable.
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