I hadn’t heard of this film at all until a few months ago when someone (I don’t even remember who!) was raving about David Thewlis’ performance in it, but it definitely seemed like a difficult watch – I approached it with some trepidation when Chewie recommended it. And while it’s certainly about a great number of people who range from borderline dislikeable to absolutely horrible and features a lot of highly dysfunctional “relationships” among working class (and below) Brits, I found it surprisingly witty, compelling, and even enjoyable, though enjoyable seems like a weird word to use.
David Thewlis’ character Johnny starts the film off raping a woman in an alley, so yeah, that gives you SOME idea of what we’re dealing with. He flees to London and stays with an old girlfriend of his (Louise) and her roommate Sophie, who immediately starts a thing with him. Then there’s a secondary plotline that eventually intersects with the first, about a truly sadistic guy (Jeremy). In the meantime, Johnny leaves the girls’ apartment, spends some nights on the street and hanging out with a bored night watchman, and getting beat up himself for no reason.
