A Hundred Streets [100 Streets] *** (2016, Idris Elba, Gemma Arterton, Ken Stott, Tom Cullen, Franz Drameh) – Movie Review

Idris Elba and Gemma Arterton star as a warring separated London married couple in the main one of three inter-connecting stories lived out within a hundred London streets.

Director Jim O’Hanlon’s likeable multi-drama is strongly cast and also thoughtful, smartly made and well paced. Screen-writer Leon Butler’s script deficiencies in dialogue, characters, motivations and plot developments hold his project back. But the idea for the film, stories, actors, photography (by Philipp Blaubach), editing, CGI, and the Battersea/ Chelsea locations are all excellent.

All the actors make the most of what they have got to go on, even if their roles are stereotypes rather than real-seeming flesh and blood characters. Elba and Arterton are good as former England captain Max and Emily the wife he’s been unfaithful to. But Charlie Creed-Miles is better as cabbie George who accidentally kills a pedestrian. And Ken Stott is outstanding as ageing thespian Terence, who gets in trouble himself after he befriends a teenage boy in trouble.

In a way the most exciting thing about the film is its brio use of London as a star actor in the dramas. Filming took place in Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill; the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square; at Battersea Bridge; at Brompton Cemetery, Fulham Road; at Twickenham Stadium, Whitton Road; on the Westbury Estate, Battersea; and at Frantoio Restaurant, Chelsea.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4622

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com