DEAD MAN'S SHOES (2006) **** Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell, Neil Bell, Paul Hurtsfield, George Newton, Seamus O'Neal, Paul Sadot, Andrew Shim, Stuart Wolfenden, Jo Hartley, Emily Aston, Craig Considine, Matt Considine. (Dir: Shane Meadows)<br /><br />England's answer to "Taxi Driver": compelling vengeance drama with a blistering performance by Considine<br /><br />Paddy Considine, perhaps best known to American audiences as the Irish immigrant father in "In America" and "Cinderella Man", may be the least likely actor in recent memory to be seen as a lethal force on screen, with his pale white skin, harmless demeanor, and easy smile but in Shane Meadows' brilliantly unnerving vengeance drama Considine reflects his dark side with the intensity of an eclipse.<br /><br />The simple oft-trod tale of revenge for a right undone - in this case an English ex-soldier's return to his northern country hamlet for some bloody justice for the crimes committed against his slow-minded younger brother by a local drug- dealing hooligan and his cronies, while away on duty - is a cinematic chestnut offering many devices for the filmmaker to employ, namely the flashback narrative (here done in grainy B&W 8mm home-movie style adding to the gritty verisimilitude permeating the pulp noir at hand) and the anti-hero protagonist (Considine giving an implosively blistering performance of furious retribution), Richard, "Anthony's brother" - as he is constantly referred to in trembly depositions by each member of the doomed thugs as if whispering a ghost's name - begins his five day (attributed by the title cards employed) spree of justice. <br /><br />The brutality and vulgar cruelty - bested upon Anthony (a very good turn by Kebbell making for very empathetic/sympathetic victim needing to be vanquished) whose only crime was not knowing the common sense in seeing just how ugly his new 'friends' could be (again told in a certain amount of restraint in the scratchy black and white sequences, jarring as they are) - indeed are in need for swift retribution and when we first see Richard, a slight, malnourished pasty-white, scratchily bearded, porcupiney scalp of Considine's character we assume he is just one of the unassuming, local blokes of the pub/ pool hall that one of the goons is dealing drugs in. When he is accosted by the dealer he lets out a vitriolic outburst that scorches the skin and chills the spine for the sudden explosive invective that only signals a death-head's warrant of what carnage is about to come. With his bristly beard suggesting a burr patch and his dark brown eyes gone dead-cold with hollow contempt Considine echoes Robert De Niro's walking dead Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver", not so much physically but in demeanor. A husk of a man who served his country only to return to a junk pile residue that was once his home and a desperate need to do some monstrous things in unspeakable ways to those who have unsettled his natural habitat. His Richard, however, has a soul and it aches you to its core when on display in a heartbreaking twist sequence I will not divulge here but it hits you in the solar plexus. <br /><br />Although I am not familiar with filmmaker Meadows and his previous films (and his collaboration with Considine including this script with a credit to Paul Fraser as well) he has a keen eye for detail and how to set an appropriate tone of absolute dread (nods to ace work done by composer Aphex Twin (AKA Richard James), Danny Cohen's cinematography and the editing team of Celia Haining, Lucas Roche and Chris Wyatt all make for moments of absolute dread and unease); a compliment indeed. While Meadows and Considine - friends in real life as well - smartly show only moments of graphic violence it is with the underlying theme of a good man gone monster is what underscores the visceral ice-numbing moments of fear and smartly not getting into a slasher type of exploitation horror film despite Richard's cheeky decision to wear an unsettling gas-mask suggesting the love child of Darth Vader and The Elephant Man.<br /><br />A real sleeper indie gem that deserves a wider release and by all means one of the year's best films.