Stars: Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt, Andy Serkis, Phil Davis, Sean Harris
Running time: 111 mins
Rating: ***

WRITER-director Rowan Joffe’s new big screen version of the Graham Greene novel is a perfectly respectable noirish thriller that doesn’t quite pack the punch it should have done.

%movie(46855)

He’s run into trouble for daring to make a new version of the Graham Greene novel previously filmed with Richard Attenborough as the razor-wielding teenage tearaway Pinkie Brown.

In a way that’s irrevelant. Joffe’s film stands on its own two feet, moving the action to the Sixties so Pinkie’s rise and fall is set against the coastal battles between Mods and Rockers.

Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Andy Serkis are the star names on the poster but the bulk of the work rests on the capable shoulders of two young British actors – Sam Riley and Andrea Riseborough.

Both are very good indeed. He’s the cocky thug with a flick knife and ideas of going up in the criminal world. She’s the unworldly waitress seduced both by Pinkie and his way of life.

Pinkie’s gang, led by Spicer (Davis) is fighting for control of the city with rival mob headed by Colleoni (Serkis) Rose gets caught up in the mayhem when she witnesses a planned murder. Pinkie steps in to woo her and get the incriminating evidence in her possession that could send him and his colleagues to jail.

Mirren is the cafe owner trying to save Rose from a life on the run, with Hurt as the friend helping out. It all ends with a tense clifftop confrontation after much fighting and running battles along the sea front.

Try to push memories of the original film (if you’re old enough to have them) from your mind and give this version of the book a chance.