It’s hard to imagine any indignity that, when visited on bankers, traders or fund managers, would fail to generate enthusiastic cheers from movie audiences. It’s not remotely fair, but, in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, financial professionals have become the go-to villains of choice.
Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy actually exhibit some sympathy for the ruined share dealers in their satirical one-octave thriller, but there’s no mistaking the relish with which they propel them into blood-drenched mayhem.
The casting of Killian Scott as the over-extended Harry is canny. That actor has charm and suavity, but he can also manage a touching vulnerability. Now reduced to low-paid data input, after being sacked from his dealing job, Harry is struggling to pay the mortgage on his vast apartment. Unlikely help comes via a daring offer from his less glamorous associate Vernon (John Bradley). The tubby dogsbody has devised a deadly game for financially inconvenienced high flyers. Two such men will turn all their remaining funds into cash, deposit the sum in a duffel bag and then fight to the death. The winner takes it all.
The two leads work hard at selling us this tricky scenario. Best known as the sat-upon Samwell Tarty in Game of Thrones, Bradley initially allows us to think Vernon similarly harmless, before unveiling unexpected levels of cunning and malevolence. Scott offers a near-perfect complement.
Featuring some semi-guerrilla shots on the streets of Dublin, Peter Robertson’s cinematography utilises North-Atlantic greys that echo the story’s sombre mood. The editing is sharp. The dialogue is nippy. “It’s better to be a bum with nothing than a bum with not enough,” somebody quips.
Unfortunately, the film’s core conceit is never sufficiently believable. Bankruptcy is a terrible thing, but could the threat of such embarrassment really propel a young man to enter Death Race 2000? It might have made better sense if the film’s universe were just a little more heightened.
An impressive debut nonetheless.
