The film tells the story of violent alcoholic Joseph (Peter Mullan), a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction, who finds respite with a devout woman (Olivia Colman) whose husband abuses her.
You won't find two finer performances in recent times than those by Mullan and Colman, who in a perfect world would each have received Oscar nominations this week.
Boston Phoenix
February 22, 2012
It sounds like an exercise in miserabilism, but Considine extracts black comedy, compassion, and dignity from his downtrodden characters and their blighted setting.
Considine equates the denizens of a Leeds housing estate with caged beasts and Mullan's performance is beautifully calibrated - a snarling, dangerous surface hiding the loyalty and affection which can be found underneath.
The acting - particularly the moving performance of Olivia Colman as a battered spouse living in a grim corner of Leeds, England - is fierce and committed. So why doesn't its impact linger?
If the script ultimately seems a bit extreme (are there no immediate consequences for Joseph's tantrums or the criminal outbursts of Hannah's abusive husband?), it's often surprisingly successful in pushing the limits of British kitchen-sink drama.
Chicago Reader
December 01, 2011
Paddy Considine's first feature as writer-director comes off like a playwriting exercise, with familiar characters taking every opportunity to wage messy, cathartic arguments or exhume traumatic memories.
More so, as familiar as a lot of this Considine does a great job of making it feel fresh and original even if little of it actually is, giving his finished film a lived-in quality that's undeniable.
The movie is cruelly frank about the ways damage cascades down to the powerless, but while it's not for the fainthearted (or for animal lovers), rewards are there.
