The Grey Mile tells the story of two ex criminals who now live side by side in what appears to be a very rundown retirement home. Big pluses for this film are the performances which were superb all the way through (especially Maggie Tulip who appears as the villain of the piece). The writers obviously tried to pack a lot into what was a 17-18 minute film, sometimes this worked well, sometimes it confused the story, but it was still an intriguing story and one that kept my attention for the duration.
I was made aware of the film on the Daily Mirror website the day after the sad death of Paul Shane, who was back to his best in this film. Murray Melvin's best appeared to have never deserted him. He was phenomenal in his role as Professor Worth, or 'Worthless' as he was known to Shane's character, Terry 'The Taxman'.
What wasn't developed well enough was Terry's background which obviously had a lot to do with the films story. We gather he's an ex bank robber, but this isn't elaborated enough in order for us to fully understand his past, we have a scene where he's looking at newspaper cuttings, but it's not clear what this means as it passes too quickly. The film starts with Terry dreaming of his dead wife whose family then accuse Terry of stealing her life savings, taking into account his past, but that's where the development ends. I felt it needed more. The filmmakers don't dwell on moments they should do at times. The film seems to be so aware that it's a short that it feels the need to rush through certain moments when it could have taken it's time a bit more.
The music was top notch and whilst it seems a silly thing to comment on, the end credits left a lot to be desired. The newspaper headlines were a neat idea but were not on screen long enough for us to read them. It's a clever idea for names to drop out of the headlines to make up the cast that appear in the film but the letters are far too small and faint, and apart from Shane and Melvin, I had to check IMDb to see who played which parts.
I was made aware of the film on the Daily Mirror website the day after the sad death of Paul Shane, who was back to his best in this film. Murray Melvin's best appeared to have never deserted him. He was phenomenal in his role as Professor Worth, or 'Worthless' as he was known to Shane's character, Terry 'The Taxman'.
What wasn't developed well enough was Terry's background which obviously had a lot to do with the films story. We gather he's an ex bank robber, but this isn't elaborated enough in order for us to fully understand his past, we have a scene where he's looking at newspaper cuttings, but it's not clear what this means as it passes too quickly. The film starts with Terry dreaming of his dead wife whose family then accuse Terry of stealing her life savings, taking into account his past, but that's where the development ends. I felt it needed more. The filmmakers don't dwell on moments they should do at times. The film seems to be so aware that it's a short that it feels the need to rush through certain moments when it could have taken it's time a bit more.
The music was top notch and whilst it seems a silly thing to comment on, the end credits left a lot to be desired. The newspaper headlines were a neat idea but were not on screen long enough for us to read them. It's a clever idea for names to drop out of the headlines to make up the cast that appear in the film but the letters are far too small and faint, and apart from Shane and Melvin, I had to check IMDb to see who played which parts.