The Criminal - Amazon.com

 

A chameleonic and versatile presence, Steven Mackintosh is one of British cinema's best-kept secrets. Since his debut in 1985's The Browning Version, Mackintosh has proved hard to pin down - indeed, some may remember him as the baleful, Johnny Rotten-like protagonist of Hanif Kureishi's punk-era TV drama The Buddha Of Suburbia, while others may recall the more rustic figure he played in WW2 romance The Land Girls, opposite Anna Friel and Rachel Weisz.

In The Criminal, Mackintosh plays J, a roving musician who hooks up with the beautiful Sarah in a London bar. Sarah seems to fall for J's terrible chat-up lines and he's feeling rather proud of himself - until, that is, he wakes up in the middle of the night and finds her dead body in his flat. Now, J is a certainly a lot of things, and definitely no angel, but he's no killer. But how can he persuade the police? It's the starting point for a gripping and original thriller that Mackintosh discussed with Amazon.co.uk contributor Damon Wise.

interviewer: What was it about this particular script that grabbed you?

Steven Mackintosh: When you read a script, how it affects you is always a big thing. I always loved the opening scene--it had a big impact on me, this arresting speech about dance music. And then it went straight into this scene with this girl--but you didn't quite know how it was gonna go. Then suddenly it became this dark, plot-heavy, conspiracy thriller, and I liked it. The thing is, for me, a lot of my work has been very diverse but also very heavily character-driven. Which is fantastic, but what was nice about this is that, from an actor's point of view, there was always something very simple about it that was quite appealing--the idea of just being thrown into a situation and led by the forces around you. I thought it would be immense fun to do. There was some nice dialogue and I liked the intricacies of the plot.

interviewer: Your character, J, is a musician. Is that something you can identify with?

Mackintosh: Music's a massive part of my life, which is why I loved the opening monologue, because it was a tirade about dance music. I don't actually agree with some of the things J is saying but it had a directness that really appealed to me, and music is something that I'm hugely passionate about. My taste is massively diverse; on the one hand I'm into quite extreme, odd, avant-garde electronic music and, on the other, I'm as susceptible to a nice melody and a good song--folky stuff, classic soul and funk, or whatever.

 interviewer: And surely an actor's life is quite similar to that of a musician's...

Mackintosh: Yeah, they're very nomadic lifestyles--you never know what's coming around the corner. So, yeah, I could definitely relate to that.

interviewer: There are few real laughs in this movie, but there's certainly a layer of black humour. Is this something you consciously brought to the movie?

Mackintosh: J's still hanging on to his sense of humour. All the way through, he has this sense of irony about his situation: "I just went out for a drink!" He's always carrying this sense of perspective: "This is just RIDICULOUS!" And the further it goes, the deeper it gets--until he's running round with guns for God's sake! Obviously, I didn't want to lose a sense of the reality of situation, but I thought a sense of irony was important.

interviewer: J, in many ways, is a loser. He doesn't actually do anything, he's just always playing catch-up?

Mackintosh: Exactly. I think that's exactly right. He's kind of a vessel, he's almost part of a game. He's just desperately running round trying to figure out the clues--which, as you find out, is a pretty futile thing to consider doing.

interviewer: How did you prepare for that kind of character? Julian, the director, has talked a lot about 40s-style film noir. Did you use that for reference?

Mackintosh: Again, what was appealing about it was that it was really simple. Very little is known about J, and I thought that very little needed to be known, because the film is really about the events that happen around him. So, from an acting point of view, it was incredibly simple. It was totally unnecessary to invent a huge backstory, because it seemed to me to be irrelevant. It was quite a simple task, in contrast to a lot of the stuff I've done. For example, Antonia Bird's film Care, which was about a man's struggle to come to terms with his dark and painful past. Compared to that, The Criminal is pure simplicity: put me in a situation and see what happens. And as far as the style of the film goes, I was keen to go with Julian's vision of what that might be.

interviewer: Were you worried that Julian hadn't directed before?

Mackintosh: No, I've worked with a lot of first-time directors, and there's often something very refreshing about experience because you get a lot of bubbling excitement and energy. It creates a buzz in itself, that.

interviewer: Are you a method actor, and do you stay in character?

Mackintosh: No, I don't stay in character, it's not the way I work. I sometimes need some kind of preparation time before a take, and, obviously, if a scene is of a particularly emotional nature, I like to stay in a certain frame of mind in order to do it.

interviewer: How was it working with Bernard Hill? He seems pretty intense in the interrogation scenes...

Mackintosh: The interrogation scenes I thought were terrifying. It really brought home the reality of that kind of situation, when your face happens to fit the picture and even though you know you didn't do it, there's no way you can prove you didn't. It happens a lot, and as we all know, it does happen. Someone has to take the rap for it, and if you're that person, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and doesn't have an alibi, then that's a terrifying position to be in. Being opposite Bernard like that... He's got this look in his eyes that's, like "Don't give me that shit, I know you did it." And you're thinking, "Oh my God--he thinks I did it. But how am I gonna convince him that I didn't?" And everything you say seems to dig you further and further into a hole. It's terrifying.

interviewer: In this movie you also work with Eddie Izzard, who plays a very dowdy but significant character. How did you get on with him?

Mackintosh: I think it was admirable of him to break away from the usual perception of him. It works really well. And I had the privilege, on the two days I was working with him to get the full force of the Eddie Izzard… (laughs)… perspective of life in between takes. Which was brilliant.

 interviewer: And what was that?

Mackintosh: Um, kind of hard to describe, really. Just that kind of topsy-turvy vision he has of the world. And it wasn't like he was sort of 'on', in a manic, Robin Williams kind of way. He was just being who he is; he has a fantastically odd viewpoint, which is a pleasure to be part of. One of the great things about this job is that you do get to meet a lot of people like that.

interviewer: And presumably get to visit glamorous locations. But The Criminal is set in your native London, and the city we see in this film is a very dark and lonely place. Is it a side of London you recognise?

Mackintosh: Yeah, I think there is a sort of anonymity about it. It's not a London that's easily identified by, say, a double decker bus. It shows London as quite a lonely place, which it can easily be. A shadowy, dark, cavernous place, even when you're surrounded by a squillion people. I think The Criminal puts that across very well.

interviewer: Finally, how would you describe the film to someone who might be put off by the title? Someone expecting another British gangster caper?

Mackintosh: I'd say that it's--as has been said before--a crime thriller, a conspiracy thriller. Have a look, see where the journey takes you. That's what's nice about it--it's not asking you to immerse yourself in its characters. Just let the plot take you where it goes. It's a dark, noirish journey, and it's bound to keep you thinking...

The Criminal

***

Rated on a 4-star scale

Screening venue: Odeon (Bromborough)

Released in the UK by Downtown on January 12, 2001; certificate 15; 99 minutes; country of origin UK; aspect ratio 2.35:1

Directed by Julian Simpson; produced by Mark Aarons, David Chapman, Chris Johnson.

Written by Julian Simpson.

Photographed by Nic Morris; edited by Mark Aarons.

CAST.....

Steven Mackintosh..... Jasper Rawlins

Bernard Hill..... Detective-Inspector Walker

Eddie Izzard..... Peter Hume

Natasha Little..... Sarah Maitland

Yvan Attal..... Mason

Holly Aird..... Detective-Sergeant Rebecca White

Jana Carpenter..... Grace

The first shot is dark and moody -- one of atmospheric blues and browns, surrounded by smoke. The dialogue ingratiates itself instantly -- the man has a speech protesting against the soulless nature of dance music, and he speaks the truth. He and the woman play flirtatious word games. We smile. We're involved.

"The Criminal" begins superbly, with the scene mentioned above and the moments that follow: The young man is a musician named Jasper Rawlins (Steven Mackintosh), the woman a stranger named Sarah (Natasha Little). They go to Jasper's flat. A man breaks in, kills Sarah, Jasper runs off. The police come. They don't buy Jasper's story -- just ask manipulative rhetorical questions, laugh off his version of events, send him round in circles, throw insults.

The key police characters are Detective-Sergeant White (Holly Aird) and Detective-Inspector Walker (Bernard Hill). They're officious cretins, interested only in finding evidence that supports their initial theories, impervious to more complicated ideas. They make bets on the crime scene regarding how long it will take to get a confession. When White finds evidence that seems to contradict Jasper's identity as the guilty party, Walker spins round shocked, and demands "You're not going cold on Rawlins, are you??"

I thought the movie was going to follow through, and become an indictment of the way bad cops lock up the first guy on the scene, and find scraps of supporting evidence as an afterthought. Instead, by the half-hour mark, Jasper is out on bail getting followed by cops and crooks trying to frame or kill him wherever he turns, and the movie has settled into a conventional man-on-the-run formula.

There are silly improbabilities, like when the real killer starts shooting police officers, and they still don't catch on that Jasper is innocent, and dreadful moments of comic relief, such as a paranoid American homeless woman who pops up out of nowhere and starts ranting interminably about some underworld phantom named 'Raphael' -- but the movie's biggest problem is, quite simply, that it abandons a strong story to become a series of dumb chases, and even, in the last act, a ludicrously pseudo-Hitchcockian conspiracy yarn.

What was going on in the minds of the filmmakers? What possessed them to set up a good story, then whisk the tablecloth from underneath and let it fall into the land of brainlessness? Far too much cinema resides there already. If the British film industry is ever to get back on its feet, it should present us with something strong and original, instead of making silly copies of the dumbest of Hollywood clichés.

COPYRIGHT© 2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani

The Criminal - London Film

London is the new Stock market

by Sarah Shannon

Forget Chicago and New York. The low-budget villainy of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels has transformed London into the movie world's top crime location. The capital is more used to appearing as the backdrop to smog-ridden period productions or romantic comedies. However, the success of Lock, Stock in the cut-throat international marketplace so impressed producers that it spawned half a dozen London imitators, all hoping for their share of the booty.

The Criminal, launched tonight at the London Film Festival, is a film noir starring Steven Mackintosh as a struggling musician who picks up a beautiful girl, played by Vanity Fair actress Natasha Little, in a bar. His excitement at the conquest turns to horror when he finds himself caught up in extortion and murder.

The Criminal also sees the return of Eddie Izzard to the big screen after Velvet Goldmine and the poorlyreceived The Avengers. He takes his first "serious" role, playing the forensic scientist who investigates the case. The Criminal's 23-year-old director Julian Simpson says he was determined to avoid the picture-postcard portrayal of London which is so beloved of Hollywood-backed films like Notting Hill and Sliding Doors. He said: "London can be the most amazing place in the world, but if you're down on your luck, powerless and without connections it can also be the most brutal."

Producer Chris Johnson added: "In a way those idyllic depictions of London are more cynical. They're like an advert for the British Tourist Board, playing to the commercial appeal of British stereotypes, a land of beefeaters and red buses."

The successor to Lock, Stock, called Snatch, is now being filmed in the jewellery district of Hatton Garden. Guy Ritchie's film reunites his earlier cast of Vinnie Jones, Jason Statham and Jason Flemyng, but also adds the extra punch of Hollywood players including Brad Pitt, who has a cameo role as an Irish gipsy turned prize fighter. Ritchie has also written a two-hour script for a television spin-off to his hit film for Channel 4. Like the original, it has a cast of relative unknowns playing a group of friends who unwittingly get mixed up in crime.

Another production using the film noir appeal of London is Love, Honour And Obey, about a north London postman who gets involved with a gang of criminals. Its Britpack cast almost guarantees success. Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller, Rhys Ifans, Kathy Burke, Denise Van Outen, Sadie Frost and Ray Winstone all star in the film, which is awaiting a release date. Winstone is also cast in two other London-based films. In Sexy Beast he plays ex-gangster Gary who is enjoying a quiet retirement on the Costa Brava when a former partner in crime resurfaces to talk him into one last heist.

Meanwhile, Five Seconds To Spare has Winstone as a recording studio manager who dabbles in the criminal world. The film promises to be memorable for the first big screen appearance of DJ John Peel who plays a radio engineer.

Finally, and most hyped of all the new London crime films, is Honest, starring the All Saints sisters Natalie and Nicole Appleton and their fellow band member Melanie Blatt. Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics is directing the trio, who play a gang of East End women in the Sixties who turn to crime. American actor Peter Facinelli plays an Oxford University student who falls for one of the women.

The Criminal - Review

CRIMINAL, THE (director/writer: Julian Simpson; cinematographer: Nic Morris; editor: Mark Aarons; music: Tolga Kashif/Mark Sayer-Wade; cast: Steven Mackintosh (Jasper Rawlins), Eddie Izzard (Peter Hume), Natasha Little (Sarah Reed/Maitland), Yvan Attal (Mason), Holly Aird (Detective-Sgt. Rebecca White), Andrew Tiernan (Harris), Bernard Hill (Detective-Inspector Walker), Norman Lovett (Clive), Jana Carpenter (Grace), Barry Stearn (Noble), Georgia Mackenzie (Maggie), Abigail Blackmore (Arsey Barmaid); Runtime: 99; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Chris Johnson; Downtown Pictures/Palm Pictures; 2000-UK)

"Simpson has created an intelligent, well-acted, twisty, spellbinding, dark and moody film that questions if what you are seeing is believable."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The British 23-year-old writer/director Julian Simpson's crime film was inspired by such B type of film noirs as The Big Combo and Night and the City. It's a dazzling story about an 'everyman' genial type, Jasper Rawlins (Steven Mackintosh), who is taken out of his environment and finds himself in over his head as a framed serial-killer who can't straighten out his messy situation and is meant to die unless he can find an answer.

In the classical dark noir atmosphere that sets the tone, one is not meant to believe everything that's said. Everyone is depicted as subject to manipulation and could be bought and corrupted. Jasper is set up as a patsy, and becomes a character in a noir film who might not be able to find his dark side in time to save his hide. Simpson has created an intelligent, well-acted, twisty, spellbinding, dark and moody film that questions if what you are seeing is believable.

Warning: there are spoilers in the next paragraph.

The film opens in a darkly lit bar where the socially awkward musician, Jasper, has picked up the classy blonde Sarah Reed (Natasha Little) despite his weak pick-up banter and coming off as someone who is not hip. Sarah plays mind games with him, and laughs at his misplaced earnestness and his self-pitying opinion of himself as a serious musician who materially survives by composing dance hall music that he knows is crap even though he yearns to write more serious compositions. Jasper's surprised to find that he succeeds in getting this beautiful but mysterious woman to go back with him to his place for a drink. All he knows about her is that she lives in upscale Hampstead and doesn't work or have a mate. Suddenly a man breaks into his flat and knifes Sarah to death, as Jasper flees unharmed. The police come when a neighbor calls about the noise from the next flat disturbing his sleep. Detective-Inspector Walker (Bernard Hill) is particularly hostile to Jasper, not buying his story. The Detective-Sgt. Rebecca White (Holly Aird) also doesn't buy Jasper's story -- as they both grill him at the police station and laugh off his story as an insult to their intelligence. They even mockingly take bets with their colleagues on how long it will take to get him to confess. But they're forced to let him go for lack of evidence, as the knife wasn't recovered. They put a tail on him headed by a female detective named Maggie (Mackenzie). Her team follows him into a peepshow where an oily character named Noble (Stearn) forces a meeting with him without identifying himself and tells him he can't trust the police but only him, as he tries to question Jasper to find out all he knows. Noble even offers to have the police drop charges against him if he cooperates. When convinced Jasper doesn't know anything he lets him go unharmed, as the police continue their tail without knowing he met with Noble. Next Jasper tracks down the bartender who served him when he was with Sarah last night, but he gets there too late as the bartender is slumped dead over the toilet in the men's room. A suspect in yet another murder, Jasper manages to lose the police tail rather than to try and explain this one to the hostile police. Meanwhile Rebecca has gotten the police computer expert, Clive (Lovett), to do a thorough identity check on Sarah, and now believes that maybe Jasper didn't do it--which doesn't sit well with her partner Walker. Walker insists that if they get the knife, they will get his prints on it. Clive comes up with info that says her real name is Sarah Maitland, she attended Oxford, was arrested for cannabis possession, and worked for a dubious firm called Shattleton that has no known address and never states its business purpose. While in the process of digging further into her bio, Rebecca receives a call that the knife was found and she should come pick it up at once. Instead, she's led into a trap as the killer knocked out Jasper and put his prints on the knife and killed Rebecca making it look like Jasper also did it. Jasper again flees the police and learns while on the run that Clive was also killed, and he's now blamed for four murders. Sleeping by a garbage dump he's mugged by an elderly homeless man, who is later picked up by the police with Jasper's wallet. Jasper finds an abandoned warehouse to sleep in as he's too exhausted to run anymore, but he's awakened and confronted by a paranoid American homeless woman (Carpenter) who thinks some drug dealer named Raphael has sent him to her hideaway to steal her stash. The homeless woman only trusts Jasper, when she reads in the newspapers that he's a wanted serial-killer. She believes the papers just provide disinformation and that he's a political fugitive framed by the cops.

The film goes into overdrive with its continuous double-crossings. A seemingly sincere forensic cop, Peter Hume (Eddie Izzard), who argued with the detectives that they have no evidence to charge Jasper with a crime, gets Jasper into his car to avoid the police manhunt and then tells him and the audience all about the mysterious underground CIA-like firm that Sarah worked for but couldn't get out of when she wanted to leave.

This is just a wonderful example of modern film noir succeeding despite using all the familiar noirish clichés. On further scrutiny, the film holds up really well. If you have a chance to see it again the story seems to even make more sense, as all the dots can be connected. Steven Mackintosh looks the part of a sap and makes all the right gestures of a nice guy caught in a web of murder and deceit. Bernard Hill is an imposing figure as a brutish, foul mouthed cop, someone very likely to get a confession from an innocent party. Eddie Izzard is playing against type in his small but significant part.

REVIEWED ON 11/26/2002 GRADE: B+

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ