Saturday 2 May 2015

"In the Blood" (Guardian 01/05/15)


In the Blood **
Dir: Mark Abraham. With: Joe Cole, Kenny Doughty, Stuart Graham, Brian McCardie. 91 mins. Cert: 15

This lo-fi Brit debut follows Hyena and Snow In Paradise in attempting to convert its budgetary limitations into a grimily serious aesthetic, but it’s as listless as its protagonist: a junkie safecracker (Joe Cole) given 24 hours – without smack – to secure a payload for crimeboss Peter Bowles. Fine actors (Alison Steadman, Phil Davis) nudge our boy forward, yet the rehabilitation and race-against-time narratives prove fundamentally at odds: we’re left watching two movies cancelling each other out. Its one oddly resonant image – the shivering addict, alone in a basement with the unyielding safe – gets forgotten about amid standard geezers-with-guns histrionics. 

In the Blood is now playing in selected cinemas.

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