The Marker (15.)
Directed by Justin Edgar.
Starring Frederich Schmidt, Ana Ularu, John Hannah, Lara Peake, Cathy Tyson and Struan Rodgers. 81 mins.
Having a guardian angel that is continually tripping you up is an unusual bind, but it's the problem facing this British crime drama. Debutant writer/director Edgar has come up with the serviceable idea of giving guilt human form. After being sent to prison for manslaughter, Schmidt finds himself haunted and watched over by the figure of the woman (Ulara) he killed, and vows to protect the daughter (Peake) he's orphaned.
Though the hole in your head will probably find little use for this latest British crime drama, this trawl through the squalid underworld has plenty to recommend it. The acting is strong: Schmidt, so good in Snow In Paradise, can play the lesser spoken sensitive brute just as well as more famous names who became stars that way; Hannah as an Irish gangster is a gimmicky piece of casting that isn't the least bit gimmicky. It looks the part too, the darkness punctuated with the piercing reds, greens and yellows that is the default look of British gangster noir. But however hard they push it, the angel of guilt angle never works.
Directed by Justin Edgar.
Starring Frederich Schmidt, Ana Ularu, John Hannah, Lara Peake, Cathy Tyson and Struan Rodgers. 81 mins.
Having a guardian angel that is continually tripping you up is an unusual bind, but it's the problem facing this British crime drama. Debutant writer/director Edgar has come up with the serviceable idea of giving guilt human form. After being sent to prison for manslaughter, Schmidt finds himself haunted and watched over by the figure of the woman (Ulara) he killed, and vows to protect the daughter (Peake) he's orphaned.
Though the hole in your head will probably find little use for this latest British crime drama, this trawl through the squalid underworld has plenty to recommend it. The acting is strong: Schmidt, so good in Snow In Paradise, can play the lesser spoken sensitive brute just as well as more famous names who became stars that way; Hannah as an Irish gangster is a gimmicky piece of casting that isn't the least bit gimmicky. It looks the part too, the darkness punctuated with the piercing reds, greens and yellows that is the default look of British gangster noir. But however hard they push it, the angel of guilt angle never works.
