Directed by Babak Anvari, who also gave us the excellent Under The Shadow (AND the very enjoyable Wounds), I Came By is a slick and intermittently enjoyable thriller, based on a story by Anvari and written by Namsi Khan. It has one problem, but that problem is enough to unsettle the whole thing, sadly, and I'll get to it soon enough.
George MacKay is Toby Nealey, a young graffiti artist who enjoys spending his time breaking into the homes of the rich and powerful, tagging their walls with the message of "I came by", and proudly watching his work appear on local news. He's helped in his endeavours by Jay (Percelle Ascott), but the two part ways when Jay finds out that he is about to be a dad. Determined not to stop his spray-painting protests, Toby ends up in the home of Hector Blake (Hugh Bonneville), a retired judge. Blake is still very friendly with people high up in the local police force, and he's the sort of person you expect to be a pillar of the community. But he also has a very dark secret, one that leaves Toby with a hell of a dilemma. This also drags his mother, Lizzie (Kelly Macdonald), into things, despite the fact that she has previously been unaware of Toby's graffiti campaign.
MacKay is okay in his role, although his performance is sorely weighed down by an accent that seems to have been taught to him by Ali G. Ascott is also okay in his role, although his performance is slightly weighed down by the script. Macdonald is in the same boat as Ascott, but she does slightly better, as you might expect from Macdonald. The star is Bonneville though, playing the villain of the piece with aplomb. Always generally maintaining an air of composure and civility, Bonneville's character is all the more fun because of his confidence. Whatever he may or may not be up to, he acts like someone who knows they will never have to worry about receiving any punishment.
In amongst the standard thriller moments, and they're often moments that we've seen in many other movies, there are some interesting ideas in here about class, about the futility of protesting with gestures that aren't backed up by actions, and the danger of self-doubt and procrastination just because you view yourself as someone unable to effect ANY change.
I did mention that one big problem though, the one that unsettles the whole film, and I'm sure you're all dying to know what that is. There's no central protagonist. A film like this needs a central protagonist, but we don't get that. I am sure Khan and Anvari thought they were making the film even more interesting, it's certainly an unusual approach, but it just ends up distancing viewers from the onscreen events. It's hard to care for anyone when you realise they may disappear from the plot at any time, only to then be replaced by a less interesting character given the nominal lead role for a while.
I can easily imagine people liking this quite a bit more than I did, but I wouldn't be surprised if many felt the same way. That one big problem is a BIG problem, and even people not thinking about it consciously may well get to the end of the film and wonder why they never felt fully engaged with the plot. I couldn't bring myself to recommend it, unless you can dismiss the rest of the movie and just enjoy the fantastic turn from Bonneville.
4/10
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