Monday, April 2, 2012

Tyrannosaur

A man of uncontrollable rage stumbles drunkenly out of a bar, mistakenly kills his pet dog, and passes out at the entrance of a Christian charity shop. When he is brought to his senses by a kind and seemingly content store worker opening up for the day, the two gradually form a bond that leading to healing and redemption. "Tyrannosaur" is actor Paddy Considine's excellent directorial debut focusing on two individuals paralyzed by two very different kinds of anger and suffering. Peter Mullan gives a vicious and honest performance as an inwardly decent person, suffering from alcoholism and the loss of wife, and almost magnetized towards violence. Olivia Colman is just as great playing a kindhearted but inwardly anguished victim of an abusive relationship, perpetrated by her vile husband played by the fine character actor Eddie Marsan. Tales of redemption in the movies are many and the achievement of such by their story's characters often feels cheap and unwarranted. "Tyrannosaur" tells the story of individuals whose suffering is palpable, and whose alleviation of these agonies we so desperately wish for.