Wild Bill Review

16th Mar 2012

Bill (Charlie Creed-Miles) is released from prison and heads back home only to discover that his wife has run off abroad with her partner and left their 11 and 15 year old sons in a high rise flat to fend for themselves.

The 15 year old is embittered at both parents and has had to take up work to support himself and his brother. The younger brother isn’t having much fun either as he is slowly getting drawn in as a pawn for the local drug dealers – all of whom used to know his dad when Bill was walking the wild side. Bill now has to try to repair past damage whilst coming to terms with his own plans for the future.

This is an honest tale that thankfully doesn’t let the subject matter get over stylised or even bogged down by heavy melodrama. It’s to the credit of a wonderful cast (especially Miles, looking very haggard) that this film works so well and remains as gripping as it is.

Dexter Fletcher directs the film confidently and lets the words tell the tale without imposing anything too gritty in the films look to help drive the narrative. Sure he has a few familiar mates to pop up in cameo spots (Andy Serkis; Jason Flemyng; Jamie Winstone and Sean Pertwee) to help add some weight to the poster and help sell the movie, but it’s the main character actors that handle the bulk of the actual heavy work and they do it very well.

Wild Bill has enough for audiences who like gritty British street life as well as even the likes who just like a good gangster tale. Fletcher has blended both very well together. Things may consistently seem grim in low-budget British dramas, but more often than not, films like this never get dull as we apparently have the right people to tell them well.