Review No.36: Deviation

It seems that I have already got a little ahead of myself as my plan to be on 34 films by the end of the month seems to have increased by two. That's thanks in part to a couple of films going into cinemas one week and then coming straight to DVD and that is true of Deviation. The film comes from a third time director who has pulled off a bit of a coup in getting a familiar actor to play the lead role of an escaped mental patient who kidnaps a young nurse to try and evade the cops it's just a shame that that actor happens to be Danny Dyer. Yes Dyer plays Frank Norton an escapee from Broadmoor who kidnaps Amber for no apparent reason when he could've just stolen her car and left her by the roadside. Frank is a nutcase who has been arrested for killing three young girls who in his own words all deserved it because they teased him, made them spend money on them and then didn't have sex with him as you can see he is a charming individual. Frank and Amber just essentially drive around in the space of less than a day while he tries to justify his personality and she tries to get help something she constantly fails to do because at the end of the day she is just a bit of an idiot. At every escape attempt Frank seemingly kills somebody else but keeps Amber alive for reasons that only seem obvious to the characters and the film-makers.

I think anybody who has seen Danny Dyer act in anything knows that he really doesn't have that much range and he is it at his best when playing a sidekick dodgy dealer type role. Here he is essentially on screen throughout the piece in what is for the most part a two-hander alongside the competent yet bland Anna Walton as Amber. The problem with Frank is that we never know if he understands his actions is he an intelligent criminal or a childlike nutcase? At first look he seems to be the latter as his personality keeps changing in his interactions with Amber and one of his fellow former inmates. Though later on Frank meets someone who has admired his work including his poetry and his artwork which apparently was quite plentiful as it was enough to justify a whole exhibition. Now Danny Dyer is a lot of things but I fail to believe him as someone who has created a whole gallery's worth of art. For me the entire piece makes little to no sense, why does Frank value Amber's life so much? Things just don't add up and the final attempt to explain Frank's attraction to Amber comes too little too late for me. The lesson is if you want a decent lead performance in your film then the last person to rely on is Danny Dyer.

Verdict: A Danny Dyer film in which he is in every scene with an incomprehensible plot only gets a measily 2/10