Themes: Prostitutes, Runaways, Flight of the Innocent
Main Cast: Lorraine Stanley, Johnny Harris, Sam Spruell, Georgia Groome, Alexander Morton
Release Year: 2006
Country: UK
Run Time: 86 minutes
Plot
London to Brighton marks writer/director Paul Andrew Williams' debut feature. Made in the tradition of such contemporary British crime dramas as Get Carter and Snatch, and adapted from Williams' celebrated short film Royalty, the picture opens with two women on the lam: middle-aged hooker Kelly (Lorraine Stanley), whose battered face discloses a recent thrashing, and the preteen Joanne (Georgia Groome). While the two board a train bound from London to Brighton in the middle of the night, the vile thug Stuart Allen (Sam Spruell) orders Kelly's pimp, Derek, to deliver the two women within 24 hours. Kelly, it seems, originally supplied Derek (Johnny Harris) with runaway Joanne to satisfy the request of a client, Duncan (Alexander Morton), for underage girls. Duncan later turned up dead, and now Kelly is a prime suspect. Nathan Constance and David Keeling co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Nathan Constance - Chum; David Keeling; Jamie Kenna; Chloe Bale; Jack Deam; Claudie Blakley
Credit
Lizzie Dixon - Art Director, Tania Polentarutti - Casting, Adam Klemens - Conductor, Jane Levick - Costume Designer, Sarah Mooney - First Assistant Director, Paul Andrew Williams - Director, Steve Truglia - Second Unit Director, Tom Hemmings - Editor, Paul Trijbits - Executive Producer, Tony Bolton - Executive Producer, Gisela Evert - Executive Producer, Melanie Davey - Hair Styles, Katherine Palmer - Location Manager, Laura Rossi - Composer (Music Score), Lol Hammond - Musical Direction/Supervision, Melanie Davey - Makeup, Paul Hyett - Makeup Special Effects, John Watters - Camera Operator, Jane Levick - Production Designer, Christopher Ross - Cinematographer, Alistair McLean Clark - Producer, Paul Andrew Williams - Producer, Rachel Robey - Producer, Ken Marshall - Producer, Srdjan Kurpjel - Sound/Sound Designer, Mitch "Wookie" Low - Sound/Sound Designer, Steve Truglia - Stunts Coordinator, Dave Payne - Special Effects Supervisor, Paul Andrew Williams - Screenwriter, Andy McBrearty - Gaffer, Filmharmonic - Musical Performer, Orchestra Prague - Musical Performer, Gisela Evert - Post Production Supervisor, Joe Kotroczo - Production Coordinator, Kerinne Jenkins - Production Coordinator, Dan Johnson - Re-Recording Mixer, Julia Delmas - Script Supervisor, Max White - Script Supervisor, Kathy Leung - Second Assistant Director, Patrick Dodd - Supervising Sound Editor
Two girls, Joanne and Kelly, burst into a London toilet. Joanne is crying and Kelly has a black eye. Eventually Kelly gets them on a train to Brighton, and it is clear they are running from someone.
Joanne is an eleven-year-old runaway who is procured by a reluctant Kelly into having sex with an old violent mobster with a taste for underage girls. Kelly's pimp, Derek, bullies her into complying, but it all goes horribly wrong, and the old mobster is killed, presumaby by one of the girls. The older man's son, Stuart, then forces Derek to find the girls. The film maintains a tight atmosphere of menace and fear as the two girls flee London in the wake of what has happened. It illustrates on the one hand the growing bond between the two as they fall into an uneasy mother/daughter relationship, but also their sense of panic, as shown by their need to get money, so that Joanne could get the train to Devon (where her grandma lives), Kelly trying to get money by picking up curb crawlers in Brighton, yet at the same time Joanne spends a lot of money in the funfair while waiting for Kelly to get them money. Eventually Kelly makes a mistake, leaving her mobile phone at the Brighton friend's house and Derek descends on them to bring the girls back. Derek and his associate, Chum, find the address the girls are staying and wait for them armed with a shotgun. They proceed to take the two girls hostage but are then ordered by Stuart to go to a secluded field and deliver the girls to the gangsters. Upon arrival, Derek and Chum are made to dig two graves, presumably for the girls. However, Stuart decides that the girls are the victims in this episode and decides instead to kill Kelly's pimp, Derek and his friend Chum to "pay" for his father's death. The film ends with Kelly and Joanne arriving at Joanne's grandma's house in Devon where she is dropped off. Kelly returns to London, with the implication that she will continue to work as a prostitute.
The film received mostly very positive reviews from critics. The British magazine produced for homeless people, The Big Issue, called it "The best British film of the century."[2] As of July 2, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 73% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 22 reviews.[3]Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 7 reviews.[4]
Awards and nominations
The film won a British Independent Film Award for Best Achievement in Production. The director also won several awards at various film festivals. Paul Andrew Williams won the Golden Hitchcock award at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema, the New Director's Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Foyle Film Festival, and a Jury Prize at the Raindance Film Festival.[1]
