By Jonathan Fisher, May 27th, 2010
This is the first feature film by Daniel Barber, nominated for an Academy Award for his short film The Tonto Woman. It concerns the plight of Harry Brown (Caine), a geriatric pensioner who is a war veteran, living in a raucous housing estate somewhere in lower middle-class London. He and his friend Leonard (David Bradley) pass their time sinking pints and playing chess at the dodgy local pub -- the meeting place for any number of drug dealers and hoodlums. Leonard is constantly terrorised by violent street youths. Eventually, they murder him. Harry knows who is responsible. We know who is responsible. The police know who is responsible, although they are loathe to take action. The case is handled by two detectives -- one kind-hearted truth-seeker (Emily Mortimer), and another more cynical (realistic?) and jaded officer played by Charlie Creed-Miles.
After Leonard's death, Harry decides to take matters into his own hands, tracking down the people responsible for Leonard's death and making them pay. It's here that the movie ventures into well-trodden narrative territory -- movies like Death Wish, Gran Torino and even Taxi Driver precede it. Daniel Barber shows us this vengeance/vigilante story in an interesting way, though. Everything about Harry's method is believable. This is an old man in a young man's world, and that is reflected in everything from the look on Harry's face when he busts a major marijuana plant operation, to the way that he interrogates the thugs (at one point, one of the thugs reveals he has information about Leonard's killer on his mobile phone. Harry pulls it out, looks at it with confusion, then gives it back to the youngster and says, "Go on... make it work.").
I've tried to think of another actor that could have played Harry with the same passion, the same nuance, and the same emotional power of Michael Caine. For the life of me, I can't come up with anyone. As directed by Daniel Barber, Harry Brown is confronting. Often its morality is all over the shop, but Michael Caine is always there to put a human face on Harry. Harry does some awful things, perhaps even some immoral things, but I can imagine sitting down for a pint with him and can see him say to me, "Sure it was a terrible thing... But what was I supposed to do?"
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