Harry Brown

There is something about Harry Brown that is mesmerizing from the first moment we meet the elderly shut-in in his simple apartment, and the grim journey that Harry Brown takes its audience on becomes far from simple.

Michael Caine plays a poor, grieving widower living in a crime-ridden section of an English town who, after losing his best and only friend to street violence, decides to do something about it.

Yes, this is a vigilante movie, but Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson, Caine is not. His soft, reluctant determination is in marked contrast to characters in movies of a similar vein, and Caine’s performance elicits sympathy and concern more so than a hope that he gains vengeance.

First-time feature director Daniel Barber use Caine’s age to great advantage, and the stellar performance by Caine is muted and complex. The film rests entirely on his capable shoulders and he carries it like a martyr on the way to the cross.