Essex Boys

A hardcore criminal fraternity peddles drugs, brute sex and violence amid Norfolk's farms and marshes and the neon nightlife of Southend. Adopting the perspective of Billy (Creed-Miles), a local lad whose curiosity and driving skills outweigh his better sense, it follows the attempt of his new employer, ex-con Jason Locke (Bean), to pick up the pieces with his pre-prison contacts and girlfriend (Kingston). When a drug consignment proves disastrously spiked, the recriminations fly. 'Inspired' by a real event which left three men dead, two sentenced to life imprisonment and another living under an assumed identity, the basics are certainly credible, even quite effectively cinematic. The locale is rendered compellingly with crisp photography and moody compositions; but the construction is botched by disjointed editing and plotting often so opaque that, despite an amenable cast, you struggle to comprehend or care about the characters' predicaments.