Best Laid Plans
Is it a gangster flick or a character drama?
Review
Itchy enjoyed this brutal-yet-tender British gangster movie turned character drama flick.
Inspired by Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Best Laid Plans takes place in
a wintry Nottingham. The world needs more home-grown independent films
like this.
Danny (Stephen Graham) and his friend Joseph are faced with a terrible ultimatum. To pay off Danny’s mounting debts to crime boss Curtis (David O’Hara), Joseph must battle his way through a number of brutally violent cage fights. As the fights get tougher so their friendship will be tested to the very limit.
With an overriding message of "there's someone for everyone", Itchy recommends you watch this if you're feeling down or alone. Things can never be as bleak as they are in the world of Best Laid Plans, but at the same time it does have a strangely uplifting quality and some genuinely beautiful moments among the fights, drugs and prostitution.
Ah yes, the prostitution. We should talk about that. Even Stephen Graham himself was surprised at the amount of Emma Stansfield's breasts on show in the sex scenes, despite obviously being there at the time of filming.
Now we've got that over with, on to the aforementioned tenderness. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost) plays Joseph, a gentle giant at seven feet tall with a learning disability which leaves him with a mental age of seven. Some of the things that he is forced to do by his carer Danny will make you question the morals of humanity in general, but the redeeming sweetness of the film comes in the form of his blossoming romance with Isabel, a girl with equally special needs played by Maxine Peake (of Shameless fame). This pair restored Itchy's faith in romance. See the film for them if nothing else.
Best Laid Plans is in cinemas now and out on DVD/Blu Ray February 20.
Danny (Stephen Graham) and his friend Joseph are faced with a terrible ultimatum. To pay off Danny’s mounting debts to crime boss Curtis (David O’Hara), Joseph must battle his way through a number of brutally violent cage fights. As the fights get tougher so their friendship will be tested to the very limit.
With an overriding message of "there's someone for everyone", Itchy recommends you watch this if you're feeling down or alone. Things can never be as bleak as they are in the world of Best Laid Plans, but at the same time it does have a strangely uplifting quality and some genuinely beautiful moments among the fights, drugs and prostitution.
Ah yes, the prostitution. We should talk about that. Even Stephen Graham himself was surprised at the amount of Emma Stansfield's breasts on show in the sex scenes, despite obviously being there at the time of filming.
Now we've got that over with, on to the aforementioned tenderness. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost) plays Joseph, a gentle giant at seven feet tall with a learning disability which leaves him with a mental age of seven. Some of the things that he is forced to do by his carer Danny will make you question the morals of humanity in general, but the redeeming sweetness of the film comes in the form of his blossoming romance with Isabel, a girl with equally special needs played by Maxine Peake (of Shameless fame). This pair restored Itchy's faith in romance. See the film for them if nothing else.
Best Laid Plans is in cinemas now and out on DVD/Blu Ray February 20.
