London Road (4 Stars)

Sometimes I watch a film which I have trouble rating. Usually it's a film which is different, and this is a very different film. It's a musical that's based on the serial killer Steve Wright, who killed five prostitutes in Ipswich in 2006. It's not completely original to make a musical about a true story, but this musical is unique because the songs weren't written. The screenwriter took the texts of original interviews with people in Ipswich, and these texts were sung in parlando. During the final credits the interview tapes are played, and we can recognise the words from the film's songs.

Another thing that's unusual is that we never see Steve Wright, neither before nor after he's arrested. All we see are the residents of London Road and the surrounding area.

And it's a Christmas movie!

The film begins in the quiet cul-de-sac, London Road. It's becoming a popular street for working girls, as they're euphemistically called. The local residents don't like them, and they shout abuse at them, but their attitude changes when they start to die. Their naked bodies are found nearby.

The early scenes show the road in a state of paranoia. Everyone suspects everyone else. If a man looks in any way creepy, he's a suspect. Everyone is scared, but my naive reaction is "Why?" The killer is only targeting prostitutes, so nobody else is in danger. The police give advice on what to do to stay safe, such as not going out alone or late at night. One of the residents puts my thoughts into words. The advice the police should be giving is "Don't be a prostitute and get into cars with strange men".

Steve Wright is arrested on 19th December 2006. He lives at 79 London Road. The residents are gripped by a lynch mob mentality. They don't care about the trial, he's already guilty in their eyes. As the trial drags on they're scared that he'll be found innocent. That's a twisted attitude. If a person is found innocent of murder, the reason is that he really is innocent. The residents of London Road had the attitude that they already knew he was guilty, so if the jury pronounced him innocent they would have failed.

The film doesn't really have a lead actor or actress. The scenes switch rapidly from one person to another. Olivia Colman has slightly more screen time than anyone else. Tom Hardy is prominent on the posters, but that was only to lure people into the cinemas. He appears in the film for less than five minutes as a taxi driver who was interviewed as a potential suspect. "London Road" was released in 2015, the same year that "Mad Max Fury Road" and "The Revenant" were in the cinemas. The hype didn't work. The film was a box office flop, despite positive reviews by the critics.

I wanted to buy the film on Blu-ray, but I waited in vain for a Blu-ray release. After all this time it's only been released on DVD. I don't understand the studios. I've finally given up and bought it on DVD. I'm sure I'll watch it again soon, to decide whether I really like it or not.

Success Rate:  - 13.9

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk