JACK SAID
UK, 2009, 101 minutes, Colour.
Simon Phillips, Danny Dyer, David O’ Hara, Ashlie Walker, Rita Ramnani.
Directed by Lee Basannavar and Michael Tchoubouroff.
(For a while, every second British small-budget film seemed to be about gangsters, especially in London. After a respite, here we are again. Jack Said, based on graphic novels by Paul Tanter who has written the screenplay, is one of a trilogy of projected films featuring Simon Philips as Jack, an undercover police officer who has gone so far deep that his boss (David O' Hara) warns him that it may not be possible to come back to normality.
In the meantime, he works with Nathan (Danny Dyer) who steals a case from the gang and has to hide. He entrusts his unwitting sister to Jack's care. Meanwhile, the gang head's ambitious daughter, Natalie (Ashley Walker) who does not suffer from scruples, is on her way to a takeover, not concerned about chopping off a rival's hand, commanding Jack to shoot Nathan and casting a malevolent eye at her father.
While watching the film, it is not as easy as the preceding paragraph might indicate to cotton on quickly to who is who and who is doing what to whom and why. It opens in black and white with Jack confronting a tied-up and gagged Natalie. It then moves to colour (although the colour shading of the film is quite dark) which, we realise after a while (or maybe at the end), is Jack explaining what has gone on to Natalie.
Jack's character elicits some pathos and a bemusement about how anyone can go undercover without some physical danger and psychological damage. Danny Dyer's Nathan is a bit more sympathetic than usual. But the thugs and the police are all intensely relentless.
Not a pretty picture.
1.A satisfying London gangster thriller? Based on a graphic novel? Adapted by the writer of the graphic novel? Its place in the trilogy, Jack Says, Jack Said, Jack Falls?
2.The visual style of the film, dark, close-ups, location photography? London, overviews? The street, factories, offices, clubs, police headquarters? Authentic? The atmospheric score?
3.The structure of the film: the present in black and white, Jack and the confrontation with Natalie? The insertion of the colour flashbacks? Most of the film being colour flashback, explanations by Jack to Natalie of what happened? The insertion of the black and white? The final confrontation, Jack going to Amsterdam, searching for Natalie?
4.The character of Jack, first seeing him in the confrontation with Natalie, wounded, confronting her? The background of his being undercover, his relationship with his supervisor, with the boss of the undercover agents? The interviews, the sinister tone of The Boss, his warnings about Jack not being able to come back? The effect of being undercover on Jack, beginning to lose his way? His relationship with Nathan, their working for the governor? Nathan and his entrusting Erin to Jack, taking her to the opera, the bonds between them? His boredom at the opera, his being lively at the meal, taking her to the casino? Their relationship, his wanting to protect her, alienating her to save her? Nathan’s disappearance? His taking the case? Jack and his relationship with the governor, The Fixer, Natalie? His having to do their work – especially the scene where Natalie chopped the fingers off the rival, his inability to shoot the rival? His being in a predicament on all sides? Making contact with Nathan, the siege, Nathan being killed? His being taken, tortured? Natalie killing her father? His escape? Going to Amsterdam, The Boss giving him the information on Natalie’s whereabouts, the confrontation with her, with her henchman and killing him? His being shot by The Boss’s sniper? A character in difficult situations, isolated and lonely, dependent, being affected by the world in which he spent his time undercover?
5.Nathan, criminal, his love for his sister and care for her, getting Jack to care for her? Stealing the case, shrewd, disappearing? His reappearance, Natalie’s confrontation, his death?
6.The governor, his ruthlessness, his fixer? The relationship to other gangs in London? Rivalries? Natalie, her personality, her resentment of her father’s love for Natasha? Her own henchman, taking over, ruthless, the torture and the fingers, wanting to use Jack? Nathan’s death? Killing her father? Her disappearance? Jack finding her, confronting her in Amsterdam? A nasty gang leader?
7.Erin, not knowing about Nathan? Going to the opera, attracted to Jack, the relationship? The brutality of her death?
8.Natasha, her relationship with her father, Natalie? Jack discovering she was working undercover for the police? The final confrontation – and her being with Jack when he was shot?
9.The world of crime, ruthlessness? Violence? The way that this was depicted?
10.The portrait of the police – the undercover police, their hard lives, their identity loss? The ruthlessness of the authorities?
11.A satisfying glimpse of an ugly world?
