Welcome To The Punch Review

9th Mar 2013

The prodigious acting talents of James McAvoy and Mark Strong raise this humdrum police procedural up a notch, but not enough to make this film feel truly cinematic.

McAvoy stars as Max Lewinsky, a police officer gunned down by master criminal Jacob Sternwood, played by Mark Strong. When Sternwood’s son is caught by the police, Lewinsky uses him as bait, but nothing is what it seems and allegiances keep changing till everyone gets what they want.

With a formidable cast list including Andrea Riseborough, Peter Mullan and Johnny Harris all doing what they do best, it’s a shame this never becomes as engrossing as it should. I think that’s because the great twist at the end, the actual story that has drawn all these characters together is a little weak. In the end it feels like the stakes are too small to warrant such a fuss. It would make an interesting bit of TV, but it’s just lost on the big screen.

Aside from the fact that there’s just nothing epic about the story, it’s also not very believable. Without revealing too much, it centres around the idea of arming the police in the UK, which given that everyone know about gun crime statistics in the UK seems a little over-reaching. I would’ve set it twenty years in the future, when London is over-run by criminal gangs bringing in guns from parts Europe or something. Setting it present day London, I just left with the feeling, what’s that all about? Does anyone in the government actually want to arm the police? Do the police themselves want to carry handguns? I don’t think so.

I don’t think it warrants a visit to the cinema, but definitely try and catch on DVD when it comes out. That being said, I’m raising it to a three because I’ve realised that Mark Strong has become a stone cold fox.