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LONDON FIELDS
Director: Matthew Cullen Cast: Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thornton, Theo James, Jim Sturgess, Cara Delevingne, Jason Isaacs MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:58 Release Date: 10/26/18 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 25, 2018 The plot of London Fields isn't incomprehensible, because its central story is too simple for that to be the case. It's a murder mystery, in which the victim, a clairvoyant, knows everything about the circumstances of her forthcoming murder, save for the vital detail of the identity of her killer. That central premise, coming from Martin Amis' 1989 novel, is intriguing, but screenwriter Roberta Hanley and director Matthew Cullen seem to have no idea how to focus the narrative within the context of the rest of the content of the novel. It involves a dying writer who latches on to the future victim in order to write his masterpiece, a pair of lovers whom the victim seems to be driving to murder, a darts tournament, and a gangster who moonlights as a darts champion. It's all set against a dystopian London of the future, where civil unrest unfolds in a background about which none of the characters care. The movie's tone veers wildly between dreary seriousness, as author Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton) tries to understand the layers of the soon-to-be-dead Nicola Six (Amber Heard), and a comedy of errors, as Nicola's hopeful paramours Keith (Jim Sturgess) and Guy (Theo James) become involved in elaborate and often phony schemes to try to have sex with her. There's even a dance number, as well as some slapstick sex, thrown in for good measure. All of the side stories and characters are what make this tale impenetrable—not only because they confound the simplicity of the story, but also because they seem to exist in completely different worlds from each other and from the relative severity of Nicola's fate. Samson serves as the narrator, constantly droning on about how complex this story is and occasionally pointing out that he's ill-equipped to communicate that complexity—especially in regards to turning Nicola into more than a clichéd male fantasy. One might say that the movie is trying to get away with its own failure to show Nicola as more than that, but that assumes the filmmakers have a clue as to what they're doing. As it drags on and on, eventually gaining some unfulfilled promise with the idea that all three men are capable of being the murderer, London Fields barely convinces us of that simple notion. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for
sexual content/nudity, language throughout, some violence and drug use)
