Dir. Paddy Considine
Stifled by his past and his own anger and frustration with the world, Joseph thinks he finds redemption in the form of local charity shop worker Hannah. However Hannah has a dark secret of her own which threatens to shatter both their lives and plunge them both deeper into deadly despair.
In Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park there’s a famous moment when the audience and characters are alerted to the oncoming danger of an approaching T-Rex by water rippling in a paper cup. Paddy Considine’s assured and commanding feature directorial debut doesn’t have man-eating monsters in it, but it does feature a one-man rampage against life and the same sense of impending doom and menace as that moment from Jurassic Park ripples throughout.
Considine is an actor who made a name for himself with his intense performances under the direction of Shane Meadows. Appearing in films such as Dead Man’s Shoes (which he co-wrote) and A Room For Romeo Brass, Considine soon secured a reputation for playing brooding, tortured characters, the likes of which would easily be at home in his directorial debut. From Tyrannosaur’s opening scene in which the protagonist, walking time bomb of internalised rage Joseph (Peter Mullan – Session 9), explodes violently and kicks his dog Bluey to death, which he instantly regrets, all the way to the shattering denouement, Tyrannosaur pulls no punches and unfolds as a gritty, bleak and unrelenting slice of ‘kitchen-sink horror.’
Considine’s direction is unobtrusive and unfussy, and he allows his characters to just live and interact and for the story to quietly unfold. The director exhibits an astute knack for revealing horror in the everyday, the mundane and the ordinary, as his broken, damaged characters that have had the shit kicked out of them by life, lead fractured and lonely existences on a seemingly unstoppable collision course with tragedy. But there is also heart-breaking beauty in the breakdown; a little boy’s drawing left at Joseph’s doorstep, Bluey's final glance at Joseph, and the bond that materialises between Joseph and Hannah. Testament to Considine’s skill as a writer and Mullan’s powerful performance, we feel nothing but pity and sympathy for Joseph, despite the atrocious things he does. Rampaging around his hometown snapping and snarling his way to personal extinction, a few violent outbursts reveal what Joseph is really capable of. But we also see him in his quieter moments, despairing and desperate.
Seeking redemption, this domestic monster whose brutality and anger has completely ostracised him, encounters hope in the form of charity worker Hannah (Olivia Colman). A chance meeting initiates a tentative friendship, but as time goes on, Joseph realises that Hannah has demons of her own to face in the form of her abusive and chillingly sadistic husband. As the quietly despairing Hannah, Colman, renowned for comedic roles in the likes of Peep Show and Hot Fuzz, delivers a powerful, utterly jaw-dropping performance. In some of the later scenes she’s barely recognisable; her face a swollen and bruised mess.
An immensely powerful, grim film that showcases the talents of all involved, and while much of it will knock the wind out of your sails, it will also let you believe that maybe, just maybe, everything will be okay in the end.