Tuesday 10 July 2012

Review No.130: Cleanskin



In my last review I bemoaned the lack of quality in the horror genre however an equally shoddy type of film so far this year is the British crime/gangster film with recent examples including the mediocre Payback Season and the plain awful Hard Boiled Sweets. Though Cleanskin isn't exactly a gangster film of sorts it is still set in the UK and the level of violence in it suggests to me that at least aspires to be a great entry into the British crime genre. The film stars perrenial British crime favourite and recent Hand of the King Sean Bean as Ewan a secret service agent who is tasked with tracking down a terrorist cell by Charlotte Rampling's imaginatively named 'M' figure Charlotte. Cleanskin obviously tries to capitalise on the 7/7 bombings by showing us several shocking suicide bomb attacks including one in which a cameoing Michelle Ryan is blown-up at a restaurant. Thankfully writer/director Hadi Hajaig doesn't make this a completely one-sided affair showing us how central extremist Ash went from bright law student to suicide bomber. As we see in flashbacks six years ago he was thriving at university however after being recruited by a radical Muslim cleric he joins a terrorist group intent on inflicting harm primarily on ex-soldiers. In a rather bloody scene he is paired with a psychotic man who thrives on killing women and children as well as the soldiers who he believes have done wrong. Of course eventually a showdown occurs between Ewan and Ash, with a rather long-winded suicide video message from Ash recited over the top of the confrontation, however I was slightly surprised to learn that this wasn't the end of the film and there was some more devious tactics afoot on both sides of the law.

When I first started watching Cleanskin I thought I was getting just another crime film however at least this one cared enough about its characters to add a little insight to their motives. Top of the class for me was Abhin Galeya as Ash who really tried his hardest to put across why his character was doing what he was doing and why he believed this was the right thing. I also felt it was a good idea to have Ash in a relationship with a non-Muslim girl, Tuppence Middleton's Kate, as it added another dimension to his character and saw that he was tempted to give up on the mission to which he had been assigned. While Galeya's performance wasn't as convincing as that of Riz Ahmed in Four Lions or Majinder Virk in the excellent Channel 4 drama Britz it was still good to see a little bit of depth in a film of this nature. I also feel that a big screen presence like Sean Bean is always a good bet in a film like this and in the quieter scenes of reflection he does thrive however his role as Ewan is essentially to kill as many people as possible. Apart from the possible exception of Charlotte Rampling the supporting cast, including Ryan and James Fox, are completely wasted as this is all about the ultimate showdown between Ash and Ewan. Cleanskin is definitely at its best when looking at Ash's motives however as Bean is the star of the show he has to have an equal amount of time devoted to his story which in my opinion is no way near as involving as that of his nemesis. So although Hajaig does have some good ideas in his film by the end of the film I hadn't really seen anything that wouldn't appear in an average episode of Spooks however it is still one of the better British crime films of the year so far.

Verdict: Though at times Cleanskin does have some interesting things to say about the motives behind suicide bombers at the end of the day this boils down to just another violent British film however just for not being a one-sided affair I will award it 5/10

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