By Dave Woodhall.
Adapting a great novel for the screen is difficult. Doing so when there’s already been one classic adaption of the book is nigh-on impossible. The John Boulting version of Brighton Rock deserves all the accolades it continues to receive more than sixty years after it was made. This update will be long forgotten by then.
Director Rowan Joffe falls into the easy trap of setting the new version in the Brighton of 1964. However, anyone hoping for an updated version of Quadrophenia will be disappointed as, apart from an early shot of scooters riding along the sea front, there are no further references to the era. While this may seem a pointless change at least the low-key references to sixties culture mean the town itself can carry on with being the real star of the film. Whatever else he does, Joffe ensures that Brighton’s reputation as a place where seaside fun and illicit danger live dangerously close existences is enhanced.
The plot remains the same; petty hoodlum Pinky (played by Sam Riley) murders a rival, after which he chases after the only witness, a cafe waitress named Rose, in order to marry her, thus preventing his new wife from giving evidence against him. Riley’s performance carries a routine threat of danger, yet his character appears at least a decade too old. Pinky’s menace stemmed from the fact that he was barely more than a boy, yet already a hardened criminal. Riley looks too worldly-wise, and his impact is subsequently lessened.
Once Pinky has achieved his aim, Andre Riseborough, playing Rose, changes from love-struck teenager to hard-bitten gangster’s moll in the time it takes to say ‘I do.’ And thereby lies the fault at the heart of this film. In both the book and the 1947 film version, Rose’s obvious decency makes you hope against hope that things would turn out fine in the end. Here, you don’t care if she and Pinkie live or die. Helen Mirren makes a brave shot at saving the film in the role of Rose’s boss Ida, but it’s not enough to lift Brighton Rock from the mundane to the memorable.
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