Oh dear, British films, what happened? I saw this little slab of nastiness just under a year ago (Oct 99) and it still isn't out today (Oct 00) - and really it is no surprise. Debuting at the London Film Festival to lukewarm response, The Criminal appears to be a hark back to the dark days of late fifties Brit crim flicks where everyone got in too deep for their own good and co-incidentally came across a superfluous American character to help the thing get distributed in the US. Only this boy's been watching too many Brit gangster films. Although a cinematographically a worthy first pop by the debut director, the story is a seen-it-all-before-with-bells-on stab at a conspiracy theory movie with one minor exception...whereas you'll normally side with the beleagured protagonist in this genre, ten minutes in and you really stop caring what happens to the unsympathetic little git. For most people, the chance to see Eddie Izzard in a straight role will be the main bait, but even he's dead ropy in it, and all in all this spiteful little drain on a couple of hours of your life really isn't worth missing the soaps for. Be warned - if the police are stationed in a building that plush and majestic there really must be something dodgy going on.
