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Four

3/10

Stars: Sean Pertwee, Kierston Wareing, Martin Compston, Craig Conway

Director: John Langridge

Given his patently low budget – a deserted warehouse serves as the major setting for this British thriller – director John Langridge deserves praise for his effective use of wide-screen cinematography (Adrian Brown) to help bring his four-hander to screen life.

The plot of Paul Chronnell’s slim screenplay finds Compson hiring detective Pertwee to kidnap his wife’s lover, and take him to the warehouse where, as he lies hooded and terrified, Pertwee subjects him to a violent beating, leaving his client’s hands clean. But Pertwee has his own contribution to make to the affair, having snatched and tied up Compson’s wife so that she, too, can be confronted by her misdeeds…

The entire cast of four do what they can with the undernourished screenplay and pull off one genuine surprise. But when I ‘watched’ the film for a second time, this time with my eyes shut, I realised that it would work just as well, if not better (with an extra line, perhaps, to illuminate the plot twist) as a radio play.

Alan Frank

UK 2011. UK Distributor: Blue Dolphin. Colour.
84 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 22 Oct 2011