Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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84 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptionally violent but never gratuitous, 30 April 2007
Straightheads is the story about a successful, controlling career woman, Alice, played by Gillian Anderson, who decides to take her young alarm man, Adam, played by Danny Dyer, on a date.
However both Adam and Alice are assaulted on the way home, following which their lives become entwined, with both obsessed with how they were hurt, unable to speak of it to others. When Alice discovers where one of the attackers lives, she persuades Adam to consider revenge.
The film is not so much about revenge as about violence, in particular how violence begets violence. It explores themes of war indirectly, including how armies protect, and fail to protect, soldiers from the dehumanising effect of perpetrating violence. Although not set in a war zone, many of the characters have a military background - including Alice's father.
It is also a film about moral contingencies, about how it is impossible to judge another's actions by absolute standards, unless you have been in the same situation.
A film about violence that failed to show that violence would be cheating, but this film is never gratuitous or voyeuristic. We understand what happened to Alice and Adam, how the attack felt, how it damaged them, by observing the aftermath it leaves behind.
Set in idyllic English countryside, the film is beautifully shot and elegantly directed.
Anderson and Dyer give brilliant, understated performances, who undergo a real journey in the course of the film. They are ably supported by the rest of the cast.
An pertinent film, that deserves viewing.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good British film , 11 Sep 2008
I usually read the reviews before I decide to view the film particularly if I have never heard of it. The reviews were mixed.
I like a good revenge film as it is something we have all thought about but never have the guts to do.
In this case a successful career woman takes up with a much younger man who has just happened to come round and fit safety devices in her house. She is the super sexy and sophisticated business woman and he watches her undress and keeps the clip. She knows she is being watched and then decides to go out with him. She takes him to a party. They hardly know each other but after the party they are attacked on the way home. He is badly injured and she is raped. The violence is not graphic.
Their lives are bound together by the tragedy and they try to recover. Her father dies and she moves back to the area where the attack took place.
One day she spots one of her attackers. There are times in the film when you jump with surprise and shock and that keeps you watching. When she spots her attacker she decides on revenge but the younger lover is not so keen.
If the film has any faults it is the fact that you know so little about the couple that you are no drawn into to be sympathetic of their plight. The attackers are shadowy figures and you know very little about them
You do not have the opportunity to hate them and the main one who raped her is treated sympathetically as he explains why he did it.
In a revenge film you want to have total sympathy wit the victims and total hatred for the attackers. In this film you are torn as you do not know enough about each.
Also normally you are encouraged to relish the end of each of the baddies but this does not happen here.
If you want gratuitous sex and violence this isn't for you . The sex is tasteful and the violence is mainly off camera.
I liked Gillian Anderson's convincing English accent but I think she did attend an English boarding school. Danny Dyer the young love was less convincing but maybe I am wrong and that is exactly how a 23 year old alarm man caught up in a revenge story with an older woman would react.
I liked it and it is definitely worth a watch. The parts I found disturbing were not the overtly violent or sexy bits.
Again I like these films because they are set in Britain and are therefore more realistic and disturbing.If they are set in the mean streets of the US they are just films. unlike some reviews this is exactly the sort of things are lottery money should be spent on. We have enough crumbling churches if people wants to restore them. The British film industry needs funding and maybe like the Olympics we will be up there again.
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20 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Am I missing something?, 5 Oct 2007
I notice that another reviewer had raved about this film and got loads of support, which leaves me wondering, is it me?
I thought this was poorly thought out rubbish; cynical and exploitative and full of inconsistent characters and hugely improbable situations, but maybe there's art there somewhere.
Gillian Anderson's accent is the best thing in this film; it's faultless. Apart from that....
If you are looking at the impact of random violence on people, then believable characters are a must. Anderson's cold yuppy acts in a wholly bizarre way. Why pick up Danny Dyer? Why take him to a party? What's that about?
Dyer himself rather undermines his character when he announces he's 23. No, Dan, you're not. Those days have gone for ever, you should just let them go.
The baddie they track hits Anderson's car with a riding whip in a thuggish fury yet later on he's supposed to be the tortured one of the group, suicidal with remorse. Doesn't scan.
Then you've got that nice bloke from 'Withnail and I' - the one who talks about Camberwell Carrots - as an upper class, ex-military psychopath rapist killer. No. No. That just doesn't work.
The other review talked about the fact that the characters had military backgrounds was significant in some way. I thought it was just a plot device, so Ms Anderson would have a telescopic sighted, fully loaded rifle in the house so she could go about her business. (By the way, anorak point, it looked like an old fashioned Lee Enfield.303. You don't put telescopic sights on one of those, nor, unless you served in the early fifties, do you keep them on being demobbed.)
I was a bit miffed to see this was lottery funded. Isn't there a church that needs restoration somewhere? Surely a better use of gambling profits.
On the plus side, it's not as bad as Outlaw.
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