Review of A Room For Romeo Brass

Introduction

Always be concerned when a grown man likes to hang about with young lads, a warning that seems wasted on the parents of Romeo and his best mate Gavin. After being helped in a fight by a guy called Morell the young lads befriend him and help him in his attempts to woo Romeo’s sister, Ladine. Morell is’nt all there, `the lights are on but there no one`s home` would be unfair though as a closer analogy would be that he’s using 40 watt bulbs when he really needs 100 watt.

As Morell’s attempts to court Ladine fail a much darker side emerges and the lads find themselves best friends with a lunatic.

Video

This disc has a non-anamorphic transfer presenting a 1.85:1 ratio picture. It doesn’t suffer from not being an anamorphic transfer to be honest as it is quite sharp and detailed enough as it is. You can’t help shake off a certain ‘made for TV’ feeling throughout although I think this is more to do with the way it was filmed rather than the actual quality of the finished picture.

Audio

The sound is a pretty flat Dolby Stereo affair which livens up occasionally when there’s the odd piece of music but which, for the most part, is dull and unexciting. I suppose that this is fair enough really as the movie relies on dialogue and this remains clear throughout.

Features

A couple of extras have made their way on to this disc. There’s a Director’s commentary, Director’s video diary and a trailer. Nothing particularly amazing here although the inclusion of a Director’s commentary track on what has to be considered a low profile release is a definite bonus.

Conclusion

Why does the DVD case have a picture of a pair of pants on the front? Well it’d be the easiest thing in the world for me to carry on from the pants on the case to the pants on the disc however that would be very unfair. Whilst it’s nothing fantastic I can’t turn around and say that it was a waste of time either. A mixed bag really so let’s start with the bad.

I know I’m being overly stereotypical and probably harshly unfair but when I see a movie made by ‘BBC Films in association with The Arts Council of England’ I immediately get turned off. Mention the BBC and you think TV and this is possibly unfair to the film, as mentioned earlier it has that ‘made for TV’ feel about it that you can’t quite put your finger on. In fact it would be perfectly suited to a Channel4 independent movie makers season. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not my thing.

The 2 lads who play the Romeo (Andrew Shim) and his best mate Gavin (Ben Marshall) seem to stumble their way through allot of their lines. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t intentional and went a long way towards ruing the illusion that you were watching a real life story. The character of Gavin was just awful as well. There was no empathy going on and I just wished he’d be written out asap. The story itself wasn’t too bad but it needed solid performances from these 2 lads to make it work and the total lack of chemistry between them leaves the movie fighting an uphill struggle from the very start. Also there were some great opportunities for comedy that simply weren’t used, some comedy in this movie would have helped matters considerably.

That’s the bad out of the way, on to the good. Well the good really comes from one element, and that is the excellent Paddy Considine who plays the mentally unstable character of Morell. This guy is great to watch. His character is a superb mix of light and dark, his dark side being there throughout and disturbing when it emerges. It’s hard to describe the way he carries himself but at times you wonder whether he is being serious or not and as the film goes on you begin to realise that he really doesn’t know either. The movie is also worth watching for a gripping climax which sees everything come to a head.

As you can tell I’m still a little uncertain of how to rate this movie. As a disc its above average quality and extras but as a movie I guess middle of the road will have to suffice as an adequate description.