TIFF Review: Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011)
September 23rd 2011 11:42
Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011)
Written September 21, 2011
Tyrannosaur begins with an act so disconcerting, perpetrated by the lead character, that one is immediately unsettled and possibly thinks to themselves, “I get to follow this person for the entire film now?” There’s no mistaking that actor-turned-filmmaker Paddy Considine establishes the film’s almost unrelenting bleak tone from the outright and challenges his audience to stay with a film in which you aren’t exactly routing for the main character. Most film viewers are jarred by this sort of screenplay; they expect to be greeted with likeable, relatable characters. This is scriptwriting 101 in order to get your film a) made and b) popular. It’s when films breakaway from this trope that truly unique visions come to light.
Tyrannosaur is a film about characters that are lost; be it they are angry, weak, victims, attackers, guilty, or innocent. The film follows Joseph (Peter Mullan), who meanders through life drunk, from one bar to the next, one fight to the next, wearing his anger like a mask. When he meets Hannah (Olivia Colman), he’s drawn to her – but he still rarely changes his old ways. Hannah has her own problems and together, the two embark on a friendship that is rather unhealthy to the both of them, when you pick it apart. The film is not about redemption or the progression of character arcs (though one can argue both of these occur) but is instead a no-holes barred look at the depths of human souls and spirit.
Tyrannosaur is not a likeable film – it’s not one you pop in on a rainy day. The characters are complex and not easy to ascertain. One tends to want to latch onto Hannah’s character, the “victim” in the film until the moment occurs when you realize (both from implications and overt statements) that she has placed herself in a situation in which she is almost no better off. The realization is disturbing, as is her assurance that Joseph is a “good man.” It conjures up an earlier scene in which she is spouting out words of forgiveness to someone who deserves anything but.
The packed festival house I saw the film with was visibly disturbed. There were multiple gasps at certain scenes and the older woman next to me was utterly disgusted by the content that she failed to clap at the film’s end. Walking out of Tyrannosaur, you feel as though you’ve been hit by a ton of bricks and wonder if there really is any hope in the ending provided, given your knowledge of certain events.
The acting in the film is astounding; with flawless work by Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman, as well as a chilling turn by Eddie Marsan as Hannah’s husband James. Considine’s set pieces are dreary as the film’s content, and he baths them in mostly cool colors. A stark contrast is the first time we see Hannah’s house. Her street is brightly light by sunshine, her neighborhood pristine and away from the grittiness of the city in which she works, yet her home life is as ugly as anything she’d find outside the bars at night in town.
Considine throws the audience into the gallows from nearly the first shot and asks us to stay there, beyond our comfort zone. The sacrifice is worth it, but at the same time it’s difficult to leave the film and claim you ‘enjoyed it.’ ‘Appreciated it’ -- for what it’s doing, how it makes you feel, what it’s attempting, is a far more fitting term.
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Comment by Bryn Tilly
Horrorphile