Nicolas
Winding Refn’s Pusher films, three
distinct yet interlocking tales from the Copenhagen underworld, formed a rare
trilogy to get more impressive with each addition. With last year’s much-lauded
Drive having attracted new and
non-Scandinavian eyes to this highly versatile and dynamic filmmaker’s back
catalogue, Refn’s longtime producers Vertigo Films have here optioned a
English-language, London-set remake of the first Pusher - written by Matthew Read, and directed by trigger-happy
newcomer Luis Prieto – that reminds one of the strengths of the first film,
while functioning efficiently enough on its own terms.
This
is an unusual crime story, and you can see why battle-hardened producers, in
particular, have been repeatedly drawn to it. Its lead Frank (Richard Coyle
here, very capably filling shoes previously filled by The Bridge’s Kim Bodnia) is neither a master criminal nor a lowly
hood, but a middle-ranking grafter attempting over seven fateful days to stay
on top of a multitude of petty problems and setbacks that threaten his
livelihood. In this case, these will include a cabal of dodgy Mancunians, the
mishaps of a wet-behind-the-ears assistant (Bronson Webb), and last but never
least, the close attentions of Eastern European kingpin Milo (the unmatchably
seedy Zlatko Buric, wisely retained from the original).
Even
a twisted ankle and a dropped mobile phone have deleterious knock-on effects,
and there remains a particular narrative compulsion in watching Frank’s working
week going from bad to hellish; it’s still a potent gag that the weekend, a
time of unbridled hedonism for the pusher’s coke-snorting clients, is where it
begins to pile up for Frank himself – so much so that he’s driven to pop home
to his mum’s. (The traditional day of rest will be anything but.) Even in this
translation, Pusher remains a brutal,
Darwinian universe, in which the weak don’t last long, and the women are
chiefly decorous, or poledancers: ex-model Agyness Deyn takes lingering baths
and shows off Agent Provocateur underwear as Frank’s moll. Still, it’s been
adapted attentively, taking care to preserve the character nuance and moral
undertow beneath its surface flash and pulsing Orbital soundtrack.
Pusher opens nationwide today.
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