Out in theaters and VOD from IFC is screenwriter William Monahan’s directorial debut, London Boulevard, a film which stars Colin Farrell, Keira Knightly, David Thewlis, Ben Chaplin and Ray Winstone.
The movie is about a notorious gangster, Mitchel (Farrell), who has just been released from prison and is looking to stay out of the crime world for good. His old friend Billy (Chaplin) meets him at the prison and, in exchange for a place to live, Mitchel becomes his backup in collecting rent from people. At the same time, Mitchel also considers working as a protector of sorts for a very famous movie star named Charlotte (Keira Knightly). The star remains in her mansion because the paparazzi are obsessed with her and she has become completely distraught by it. Eventually the two form a loving bond and decide that they’d like to move to LA. Unfortunately, Gant (Winstone), a powerful and ruthless mob boss sees Mitchel as a very valuable asset to his criminal team and asks him to join up. Mitchell decides against it and the rest of the film becomes a web of extortion and murder as Mitchel tries to protect himself and other select individuals from Gant’s attacks as he’d rather see Mitchel dead than an honest, free man.
Despite being written by the man who brought us Kingdom of Heaven, Body of Lies, and the Oscar winning The Departed (although that was rewritten from an already awesome Asian film), London Boulevard doesn’t come close to those great works but it does come off as being very cool and collected. The film is based off of a novel of the same name by Ken Bruen but unfortunately it doesn’t feel original. This is mostly due to the fact that we’ve seen plenty of movies where criminals who plan to go straight end up getting sucked back into the system because the people around them won’t leave them alone. It’s this lack of originality and unfortunate predictability which makes the movie such an average piece of cinema.
I thought the acting was pretty good. Colin Farrell plays this cool cat whose hard not to like, but it’s mostly due to his characters principles and philosophy which I admire and respect. Ray Winstone does a solid job as a violent, gay gangster who you would never want to F with. While I 
may not be a huge fan of Keira Knightly, she didn’t disappoint and brought the intelligent innocence of her character that was required in order for the love story to evolve. David Thewlis is the one who stole the show every time he was on screen. As Charlotte’s druggie confidant and former actor, he was able to provide all the necessary comic relief and twists that were needed to elevate the film.
I’ve already mentioned that I enjoyed the coolness of the film, but what I also really enjoyed was when Mitchel started to get mad with his situation because it’s at that point when two confident badasses begin to square off with each other, creating a rather enjoyable and violent finale.
Overall, London Boulevard is a cookie cutter English gangster film and a mediocre directorial debut for the Oscar winning screenwriter. It has its fair share of amusing moments including a few brilliant and violent scenes and the hilarious presence of David Thewlis as the druggie hippy actor. But the main reason it doesn’t shine as bright as it could is that it lacks the charisma, originality and unpredictability that you normally associate with crime flicks.
Rating: Predictable and unoriginal but not without its share of fun guilty pleasures (5.5/10)
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