Review: Starred Up
That Eric (Jack O'Connell) is an angry young man is self-evident before he utters a single word. Roughly handsome with savage instincts that quickly manifest into violent outbursts, the 19-year-old has been "starred up," a practice by which the British prison system moves dangerous juvenile offenders to an adult prison.
Eric is certainly a dangerous animal and one familiar with violence and incarceration. He goes through his processing with a calm swagger and, within minutes of settling into his single cell, fashions a weapon out of a razor blade and a toothbrush. After he brutally attacks a fellow inmate, he anticipates the subsequent retaliation of the prison guards: he greases himself down, breaks off two legs from his desk, and takes them on. Even when they do manage to cuff and subdue him, he latches on to one of the guard's privates with his teeth, keeping them clamped down until gradually convinced to let go. Eric may be the youngest in this ward of high-risk offenders but he is just as jail-smart.
His behaviour, and how to deal with it, is the focus of three men, whose respective solutions are often at cross-purposes. There's Deputy Governor Hayes (Sam Spruell), the warden who's only too happy to warehouse him and keep him off the streets even if he has to stage a suicide to do so. Volunteer therapist Oliver (Rupert Friend) pleads for Eric to undergo rehabilitation whilst Eric's own father Neville (Ben Mendelsohn), a fellow detainee, tells the young lad to calm down, play the system's game, and then bounce back into society.
Starred Up is a formidable entry in the prison film genre, buzzing with edge and immediacy, acknowledging the dehumanising effects of institutionalism whilst advocating reformation for young offenders. David Mackenzie's direction and Jonathan Asser's script (partly based on Asser's own experience as a prison counselor) is unblinking in its emotional and physical violence. Scenes in the group therapy sessions that Oliver conducts are laced with volatility - each prisoner is all to prime to kick off.
The performances are solid throughout but this film well and truly belongs to the magnetic O'Connell, who is fast proving himself as the actor to watch. Intense, unpredictable, but not lacking in emotional musculature, he is nothing less than outstanding. The father-son dynamic could have been hokey and the finale is just this side of histrionic, but he and Mendelsohn elevate it to an almost Shakespearean level.
Starred Up
Directed by: David Mackenzie
Written by: Jonathan Asser
Starring: Jack O'Connell, Ben Mendelsohn, Rupert Friend, Sam Spruell
