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Estate (The)
R0 - United Kingdom - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Neil Bray (18th July 2011). |
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The Film
 Steven Drew’s directorial debut (also written by him) is a bleak and depressing look at life on a South London Estate. The promotional letter I received stated: “The story of a bad boy hoodie and his gang that dominate their zone on a notorious South London council estate and the five families who struggle to survive with the cruel everyday life that surrounds them. Police corruption is also at an all-time high and residents are eventually pushed to the limits as gang crime spirals out of control.” From reading the above I was expecting a hard-hitting drama focusing on different moments in the lives of these families; which would eventually lead to the various stories overlapping or intertwining to form a climax. That is only true in part. Firstly let me say that this film looks awful. It’s a world without colour; a world that reflects the despair of the characters who infest it. When I watch this sort of film I need to be invested in the characters. I also need to see a glimmer of hope and light for some of them; after all, as hard as life can be, everyone has good times or manages to improve their lives. Not so for these characters. Only ONE of these people manages to ‘get out’ of the estate and become a lawyer; but he is relegated to only three scenes in the film and his appearances almost seem like an afterthought – possibly a moment of guilt on the part of the director to interject some hope? If this is the world that Steven Drew sees I feel very sorry for him. This is a world where everyone falls into the following categories: thief, prostitute, rapist, killer, drug dealer, drug user, corrupt and illiterate. I know there are people in the world like this, but surely not all on the same estate; and even if they are, there must be some decent people in the mix. Brian Murphy (of George & Mildred fame, desperate for food presumably to agree to be in this) appears as half of an elderly retired couple. His wife desperately wants to move, but he won’t be ‘scared off’ by the gangs because they’ve lived there for 40 years; so, resigned to their lives, his wife watches the daily horrors of the estate from their balcony but is powerless to do anything because her husband tells her to ‘not get involved’. This level of apathy, while undeniably true on occasion, sends the film into even darker territory. Surely there are some good people living here? Nope. Also, fresh from the Harry Potter franchise, is Josh Herdman (Gregory Goyle in the Potter films). Obviously trying to break away from the wholesome image that the Potter films portray he plays one of the nastiest characters here: an ex-borstal bad-boy with a potty mouth and bad attitude. Josh, mate, fire your agent; because he’s not doing his job if this is the sort of job you’re being offered. The barely coherent story meanders from character to character without any real sense of direction which makes for an unrewarding viewing experience in my opinion. No character is given enough screen time or back story to become anything more than the stereotypes they are. The climax of the film is a fight on the estate which falls flat (I saw better fights in West Side Story – and they were dancing!), followed by a voice-over epilogue which still offers no sense of hope for these people. Is this the image of UK council estates we want the world to see? That everywhere is populated by selfish degenerates who live their lives devoid of hope? It’s certainly not the world I want to watch.
Video
Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Since switching over to Blu-ray I have come to expect a lot less from DVDs in the way of picture quality; especially in older films. But for a film made in 2011 I certainly expect a better picture than this. In all honesty this looks like it was filmed on VHS, then copied a few hundred times before getting to the copy I watched; it’s grainy and blurry with no definition. If the director was aiming for a documentary look, then he got it – only, but documentaries from the 80s have seen better days.
Audio
Only one sound option available here: an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track, which, following my statement above, sounds as though it was recorded underwater, in a steel box, while covering the microphone with a few dozen rags to muffle the sound. Simply awful.
Extras
None.
Overall
A nasty, hopeless and pointless film about people you really don’t want to meet, who live a life devoid of joy, where everyone they know is committing a crime and every other word is a swear word. Avoid at all cost.
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