I doubt he remembers it, but I had a lovely meeting once with writer-director Paul Andrew Williams that I believe has helped inform my approach to reviewing over the past decade. It was a timely reminder that, whatever you think of a movie, people are often working together with the best of intentions to put something onscreen that they believe in, something that they hope will connect with others. The fact that he granted me an interview before I even had a smartphone is also as sweet as it is embarrassing (I can still remember frantically scribbling down notes on a jotter that encapsulated the gist of our all-too-brief conversation).
Anyway, this is all preamble, and it doesn't explain why I took so long to get around to watching Bull. Perhaps it does though. And perhaps it also explains why I have yet to watch his 2012 movie, Song For Marion. I wanted to maintain an opinion of his filmography that remained weighted towards the positive (having enjoyed both London To Brighton and The Cottage) and Williams certainly isn't someone afraid of making bold choices in his film-making.
Bull stars the excellent Neil Maskell in the main role, a man who is apparently "back from the dead" to get revenge on those who wronged him. He wants to know where his ex-partner, Gemma (Lois Brabin-Platt) and son are currently living, and he'll destroy anyone who gets in his way. Numerous flashbacks show us what happened before everything went to pot for Bull. There are some happy times, but it's soon a slow slide towards misery as Gemma starts having an affair behind his back, using heroin, and then wanting to take their son away from Bull. He doesn't want this to happen, of course, but Gemma is the daughter of local crime lord, Norm (David Hayman). Norm is also Bull's boss, basically, and that makes things very difficult when Bull starts to fight for the right to keep custody of his son.
Not for the queasy, Bull is a film that shows terrible, and realistic, violence from the very first moments. And it only gets worse from there. The central character, played with impressive focus and barely-contained rage by Maskell, doesn't care about those he kills. If they're in his way then they have to be removed, and if their death can also be turned into a message then all the better. Williams threads together plenty of impressive moments, helped by a cast who all feel very believable in their roles, and there's also a brooding score by Benjamin Stefanski AKA Raffertie, as well as impressive cinematography from Ben Chads and Vanessa Whyte.
With the main premise being a feared figure coming back into their home town to cut a swathe through the local criminal gang as he gets bloody vengeance that starts to seem more and more unavoidable, it's natural to compare this to the masterful Dead Man's Shoes. It's also a bit unfair though. Few films are as good as Dead Man's Shoes, in my opinion, but Bull actually comes damn close. Although many will disagree, I started to appreciate it even more as it turned into something a bit stranger and less predictable in the third act, heading towards an audacious and brilliant ending that I know some people absolutely loathed. As I said just above, Williams certainly isn't someone afraid of making bold choices in his film-making.
Maskell is as great as ever here, and it's always great to see him get a rare lead role (he should get a lot more of them), and Hayman is equal to him, albeit portraying someone apparently just as dangerous in a quieter and more dishonest way. Brabin-Platt is good, even if her character is turned into someone you can boo and hiss at by the midway point, and I was pleased to see both Tamzin Outhwaite and Kellie Shirley in minor roles, although both are sorely underused. Kevin Harvey, Jason Milligan, Yassine Mkhichen, David Nellist, Jake Davies, and Jay Simpson make up the rest of the main players, and all do well at being suitably unnerved, and/or prepared to be violently murdered, by our lead.
I can't find much to fault in this. I thought it was a great story, told with the help of a great cast, and the ending felt as if it somehow made complete sense, and somehow fit perfectly in line with all that had already happened. I realise others feel different about it, but I would certainly encourage everyone to watch it at least once. Now, excuse me, I'm off to buy the limited edtion blu-ray from Second Sight.
9/10
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