When Channel 4 adapted David Peace's Red Riding books, each film of the trilogy having a different director. I expect champagne corks were popping in the Channel 4 offices as the preview tapes were sent out to the press as the Executives were just counting the days until they collected the various BAFTA awards.
The reality did not work out as the film series were rather flawed and seemed to be too sure of itself which is evident in the first film of the trilogy.
It is set in 1974, an era strikes including the Yorkshire miners and two general elections were held that year.
Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) is a cocky cub reporter at a local newspaper. John Dawson (Sean Bean) is a bent property developer. A businessman with local cops and local politicians on the payroll.
Dunford investigates a series of murdered girls, one of whom is found on Dawson's property with swan wings stitched into her back.
An elusive male prostitute, BJ (Robert Sheehan) has incriminating evidence that Dunford acquired and which he later passes on to a police officer he thought was a friend but are eventually destroyed.
The story although fictional have an aura of being based on real life events and based on real characters albeit a fictional wrapper. The film has a dark undertone, a neo-noir thriller but it never really works. Its an uneasy mixture of grime and grit with unlikeable characters all around and even dense in places.
The reality did not work out as the film series were rather flawed and seemed to be too sure of itself which is evident in the first film of the trilogy.
It is set in 1974, an era strikes including the Yorkshire miners and two general elections were held that year.
Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) is a cocky cub reporter at a local newspaper. John Dawson (Sean Bean) is a bent property developer. A businessman with local cops and local politicians on the payroll.
Dunford investigates a series of murdered girls, one of whom is found on Dawson's property with swan wings stitched into her back.
An elusive male prostitute, BJ (Robert Sheehan) has incriminating evidence that Dunford acquired and which he later passes on to a police officer he thought was a friend but are eventually destroyed.
The story although fictional have an aura of being based on real life events and based on real characters albeit a fictional wrapper. The film has a dark undertone, a neo-noir thriller but it never really works. Its an uneasy mixture of grime and grit with unlikeable characters all around and even dense in places.