A solitary man leaves the pub. The dog barks, the man gets irritated, kicks it and kills it. At the betting shop he sneers at one of the staff and is told not to come back. He throws a stone through the windows. In the pub, some very short men are making a racket playing pool. He loses his temper and knocks one of them unconscious with a punch. This is Joseph, a violent man, enraged with life, who on his road to self-destruction meets Hannah, a devout shop assistant who awakens the goodness he carries inside. What we’ll see is how this relationship affects their lives.
No, Tyrannosaur is not a love story. Or perhaps it is, but it has none of the magic or romanticism we’re so used to seeing. It’s another stage of love, where compassion and empathy for others reign. We’re given a hard story, with characters marked by the cruelty of life in the form of death or abuse. It lays bare the aggression and violence of the world we live in, and how the people around us shape our lives, giving them meaning or taking it away.
What have we got?
- Little-known actors with plenty of experience and brilliant performances: Peter Mullan (you’ll know him from the groundbreaking Trainspotting, the psychological Session 9, or his brief role in the fascinating Children of Men), Eddie Marsan and Ned Dennehy (both with small parts in bigger box-office films such as the recent Sherlock Holmes or one of the best of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films).
- Complex characters with depth and realism, very well developed. Hannah, played by Olivia Colman, stands out.
- A director making a masterly debut, Paddy Considine, who has been an actor and screenwriter and is the author of the script.
- A window onto the characters’ lives.
What haven’t we got?
- A high budget, a mega-production, a blockbuster.
- Frills and stereotypes.
- New concepts or ideas beyond the clichés.
How does it turn out?
A small gem that didn’t go unnoticed at the Sundance Film Festival, with performances more at home in the theatre and a splendid X-ray of its characters. A film that is very, very carefully worked and made with great care. There’s an immense amount of detail that lays the characters and their lives bare (look at the interiors of their homes, as revealing as in Beginners, both Joseph’s and Hannah’s). It’s remarkable how the script builds and digs into each of them, little by little, taking us deep into their lives. It’s true that the ideas it deals with aren’t new or different. But everything is perfectly defined, the film is convincing and consistent, with captivating performances that hold the viewer’s attention throughout.
Watch it if you like realistic films where the story unfolds through the lives of its characters.
In the vein of the brilliant This Is England (for its setting and the way the story develops) or The Secret Life of Words (for the inner depth of its characters).
Interesting, highly recommended.