Tyrannosaur

2011 | 91 minutes | Rated NR

Peter Mullan stars as a violent drunk in working-class Leeds who bonds with a kindly victim of domestic abuse (Olivia Colman, a veteran of British TV comedy). Paddy Considine's first feature as writer-director comes off like a playwriting exercise, with familiar characters taking every opportunity to wage messy, cathartic arguments or exhume traumatic memories. The leads are the whole show, and the understated visuals give them room to make the material their own. But none of the other characters is all that fleshed out (Eddie Marsan, as the woman's cruel husband, hasn't got much to do), and despite having shot the entire film on location, Considine never establishes much sense of place. By Ben Sachs

Director: Paddy Considine
Producer: Diarmid Scrimshaw, Mark Herbert, Peter Carlton, Katherine Butler, Hugo Heppell, Suzanne Alizart and Will Clarke
Cast: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan, Ned Dennehy, Sally Carman, Samuel Bottomley, Paul Popplewell, Sian Breckin, Paul Conway and Julia Mallam