Review No.116: Payback Season

These days there are very little surprises during awards season as the same people the same awards throughout however this year's one shock did come at the BAFTAs when the Rising Star Award went to Adam Deacon over Thor stars Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth as well as new king of comedy Chris O'Dowd. Looking over Deacon's past work I can't say I've seen him in a lot of things and of those that I had seen the only memorable turn he gave, in my opinion, was as Space in Charlie Brooker's Dead Set. This week I got an opportunity to change my mind about him as my latest LoveFilm DVD was Payback Season in which Deacon stars as Jerome Davis a premiership footballer who comes from a humble council estate background in which he used to be somewhat of a gangster. Jerome is forced to revisit his past when he bumps into some old friends who are led by Baron an intimidating drug-dealer who doesn't take failure very well and is soon asking his friend for large amounts of money as he believes that he is owed for not having the same sort of opportunities that Jerome now has. Baron and his crew try to tempt Jerome's brother into their life of crime which causes him more anguish and eventually things come to a head as he tries to once and for all leave his world behind. Running alongside this is a flimsy romantic subplot where Jerome tries to romance Nichola Burley's sports journalist who at first rejects his advances but obviously his charm is far too much and it seems that the offer of an omelette is enough to make her drop her knickers.

While watching Payback Season I came to the conclusion that this film really isn't for me as its another of those 'gritty urban dramas' only this time with a premiership footballing twist. Everybody constantly asks 'You Get Me' and ends every line of dialogue with 'Ain't it Bruv' so even though I didn't grow up in an environment similar to the characters in this film I still don't feel that this portrayal of inner-city life is completely realistic. The problems mainly come from the script, co-written by director Danny Donnelly and Jenny Fitzpatrick, which seems to see the characters repeating lines over and over or reiterating similar points. The characters themselves are generally underwritten, especially the female parts namely Burley's journalist and Anna Popplewell's sports columnist, and nothing they say really feels genuine. On a positive note some of the clubbing scenes as well as one of the fights were stylishily shot however I couldn't help but think that I'd seen all of these shots in films Guy Ritchie was making over ten years ago. There are some real laughable performances with Burley, Popplewell and Liam Donnelly as Jerome's brother are the main offenders while there's also a strange cameo from Geoff Hurst as Jerome's agent personally I'm still struggling to comprehend why the footballing legend agreed to appear here but maybe somebody told him that he'd been in with the yoof population if he did it. The one shining light in this mess of a film is David Ajala as the terrifying Baron who is able to demonstrate a level of calm menace before he eventually snaps in fact my favourite scene in the film is when he realises one of his lackeys has been stealing from him so to get revenge he beats him with a kettle before pouring the boiling water all over him. Finally what of Mr Deacon? Well I have to say he was a likeable and relaxed presence throughout here while in addition I felt when Jerome was talking about coming from nothing to be something it was the actor recounting his own experiences however I didn't find him believable for one second which I suppose is a problem when you're the lead actor. Deacon's performance in Payback Season definitely won't be winning him back-to-back BAFTAs and while the actor certainly possesses charm based on this film alone I don't see him as an award-winning leading man.

Verdict: Poorly directed, comically underwritten and featuring some really bad performances the only shining light in Payback Season is Ajala's terrifying screen presence so for that reason alone it gets 3.5/10