Dead Man's Shoes

With A Room for Romeo Brass, director Shane Meadows introduced the world to a sublime talent by the name of Paddy Considine, who I have been heard to say, even before this release, is the best British actor of his agegroup at work today. Following appearances in low budget art films Last Resort and The Martins he was labelled The Robert De Niro of the North for his intensity and depth of performance. A major role in Jim Sheridan's Oscar nominated In America took him to the big-time to much acclaim, but it was back in Nottingham with his old pal Meadows that he really belonged. Dead Man's Shoes then is a step back to roots for both men, claiming joint screenwriting credits and making a film that you can see in every frame that they both believe in passionately. In my head I had hyped this up to be potentially the best British film ever made - the trailer left me with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up for days! well, its not quite everything I'd hoped for - some of the supporting cast leave something to be desired in the acting department and the levels of humour thrown in to the drama did not always ring true - but that is to take nothing away from a scintillating idea and a very decent script all wrapped up in Meadow's loving touch and attention to detail; his camera often finds astonishing images that linger in the mind and his use of music is, as ever, beautifully judged. Above all this though is the performance of Considine in a role that defies sympathy for its sheer brutality, but nevertheless leaves you in total empathy for an anti-hero worthy of the name. His choices and subtleties never cease to astonish and delight me: I could watch him eat a bag of crisps and be in tears by the end of it - so when it comes to the final showdown between Considine's character, Richard, and the one man who could have stopped the carnage I was left absolutely breathless and any faults that exist with the film melted away as the camera drifted above the Midland's council estates and into the dawn in the final shot. Next to be seen in The Cinderella Man with Russel Crowe, one day soon someone is going to give Considine the part of his life in a big budget hit, and when that happens there will be no one to touch him - if ever an actor was destined for legend then it's this guy! 9/10 Kx