TYRANNOSAUR written and directed by Paddy Considine, with Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan. A D Films release. 91 minutes. Opens Friday (January 27). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Sunk deep in the despair of alcohol-fuelled violence, a deeply troubled Yorkshire man (Peter Mullan) finds himself befriended by a younger woman (Olivia Colman), but soon discovers she has problems of her own.
In his first feature as a writer/director, invaluable character actor Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum, Submarine) mashes the misery button down as far as it will go: animal cruelty, abusive husbands, alcoholic rages, child endangerment – and that’s just in the first reel.
You can’t deny the intensity or the impact of individual scenes, and the actors hold nothing back, but there’s a sense, as one awful event piles atop the last, that the filmmaker is trying to outdo Leigh and Loach for cinematic suffering. And that gets wearying.
