The Last Yellow

The Leicester film industry rolls on! After The Girl with Brains in Her Feet comes director Farino's gentle comedy thriller. Mother's boy and self-professed ex-SAS man Frank (Addy) is employed by new chum Kenny (Creed-Miles), simpleton brother of wheelchair-bound Keith (Hooton), to kill the Cockney nasty responsible for the latter's condition. This is a game of two legs: the first, at home, 40 minutes of nicely played if routine observational comedy, trading on the delights of nondescript Leicester council estates, cheap B&Bs and working men's clubs; the away leg sees the pair coaching down to Polanski territory as their intended hit in South London proves more complex than envisaged. The film is an audacious, if not always credible attempt to break away from the clichés of macho Tarantino-like thrillers in favour of gentler, more ironic characterisations, but despite strong performances, it never entirely frees itself from TV associations. In adapting his stage play, Paul Tucker has exposed its holes - the proud provincial bias, affectionate in the first half, feels parochial in the second. The absence of sentimentality is impressive, however, and the film is full of unexpected charms.