Film review: The Escapist

Published on Thursday 19 June 2008 20:56

THE ESCAPIST (15) *** DIRECTED BY: RUPERT WYATT STARRING: BRIAN COX, DAMIEN LEWIS, STEVEN MACKINTOSH, JOSEPH FIENNES

THIS jailbreak movie from Blighty should help dispel any lingering memories you have of The Great Escape, Porridge or Roger Daltrey's McVicar. Serving up an ingeniously plotted thriller that cuts back and forth between a daring escape and the story leading up to it, debut director Rupert Wyatt tries to draw you in close to distract you from the rug-pulling finale he's got planned – a technique that starts to grate but still offers plenty of things to savour. Chief among those is Brian Cox as Frank, an ageing lifer who has resigned himself to spending his remaining days inside until word reaches him that his 20-year-old daughter has become a junkie.

Suddenly galvanised by a need to try and save his estranged offspring, he's the one who organises the break, which brings him into dangerous conflict with Damien Lewis's unsettlingly soft-spoken top dog convict. Though the remainder of the cast aren't quite as fleshed out (especially Joseph Fiennes's near-silent hard man), the film delivers a distinctive, unromanticised picture of life in jail to show how hard-won redemption really is.