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LONDON FIELDS: THE DIRECTORS CUT (2018)
London Fields: The Directors Cut image

CAST
BILLY BON THORNTON
AMBER HEARD
JIM STRUGESS
JAIMIE ALEXANDER
JOHNNY DEPP
CARA DELEVINGNE
JASON ISAACS
THEO JAMES

BASED ON THE BOOK BY
MARTIN AMIS

SCREENPLAY BY
MARTIN AMIS
ROBERTA HANLEY

PRODUCED BY
JORDAN GERTNER
CHRIS HANLEY
GEYER KOSINSKI

DIRECTED BY
MATHEW CULLEN

GENRE
CRIME
MYSTERY
THRILLER

RATED
AUS:NA
UK:NA
USA:R

RUNNING TIME
118 MIN

 

 

 

 

London Fields: The Directors Cut image

A compelling film-noir with futuristic leanings, London Fields: The Director’s Cut features bold filmmaking by Mathew Cullen who blends the intimate with the outrageous in this story of chaos, love, and paranoia in a doomed filled world.

Movie history has long seen many a visionary director – Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, David Lynch, and more – battle against studios and producers for the right to “final cut”. Add Mathew Cullen and the producers of London Fields to that list. An adaptation of the 1989 novel of the same name written by Martin Amis, London Fields was originally set for release in 2015, yet a lawsuit between Cullen and a select number of the film’s producers resulted in a lengthy delay, and a chopped up “theatrical cut” released to critical denunciation and dismal box-office. Now finally available is a “Directors Cut”, and true to form it once again proves that more often than not, a director’s vision is the only one to adhere to.

Set during an undisclosed time where nuclear war threatens to tear the world apart, London Fields stars Amber Heard as Nicola Six, a clairvoyant femme fatale involved in the lives of three very different men: Keith Talent (Jim Sturgess) a grotty criminal and skilled darts player; Guy Clinch (Theo James) a high class banker bored with his life; and Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton) a writer who shadows Nicola for inspiration.

The elements of many a traditional film-noir are in place: the femme fatale, the gangster, the straight man, and a murder. Yet London Fields is far from conventional, nor is it predictable. Cullen (a very successful film music video director making his feature film debut), had taken Amis’ strange yet highly heralded novel and created a sure to be future cult classic, dripping with paranoia, lust and a foreboding sense of doom. Although written at a time of heightened Cold War tension, this is a film that is still very relevant in these politically fragile times, where the lowest of cretin and the highest of aristocrat still try to out-do one another in a dog-eat-dog world where happiness is neither promised or attained.

Ahead of the pack is Nicola, who uses her wiles and her sensuality to turn all matter of man into putty. Amber Heard has long been known as one of the most intelligent and beautiful actresses working in Hollywood today, yet she had not found that role to display both qualities. Nicolas Six does that and more. If Aquaman made Heard a star, London Fields presents that she is indeed a fine actress.

Great too is a standout turn by Jim Sturgess as the grotty yet strangely empathetic Keith Talent, a walking hard-on with greasy hair and rotten teeth who embodies a cocksure swagger and violent temperament. For a riotous laugh you can’t go past watching Sturgess strut to the Dire Straits classic “Money for Nothing”. Billy Bob Thornton anchors the film with a quiet, introspective turn as the watcher of this game in lust and greed, and an uncredited Johnny Depp stands out in a villainous role that makes good use of his penchant to get down and ugly.

Cullen delves into many facets of what a humanity would look like when faced with the threat of its extinction, namely selfish without fear of consequence. Even with the end of the world but a button away, humanity’s tendency to cave to its more lustful and baseless urges never weakens. Nor will the struggle between director and financier over who is in command over a films fate. After watching London Fields: The Directors Cut, it is clear that film fans were robbed of watching a unique, complex and compelling film experience.  

 

***1/2

 

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