"Joseph" (Peter Mullen) has just buried his dog in his garden on a council estate where many of his fellow residents are like him - angry, violent and full of despair. After being beaten up on the street, he takes refuge in a nearby charity shop where he befriends the lady who works there. "Hannah" (Olivia Colman) is a woman of deep Christian faith who sees good in everyone and when he begins to visit regularly, the two begin to bond a little. What he doesn't know, but we do, is that she is married to "James" (Eddie Marsan) and he's a nasty piece of work. His discovery of this quite shocking news brings both of them to fairly startling realisations that lead both to differing forms of quite drastic action. Mullen isn't exactly versatile, he usually plays the hard man - and he plays that role well here, but he also allows his character to be tempered by Colman who's persona takes a parabola in the opposite direction. Paddy Considine largely lets the two of them get on with it with only the occasional intervention from the rather unconvincing, it has to be said, Marsan to break up the duopoly. The dialogue is ripe and authentic, and the whole thing is structured so as to present the middle of their story. We know what has happened, what is happening but not what's next...? It packs quite punch, this, and wasn't what I was expecting. Give it a go - you won't be disappointed.
