English
Review
Credits
 Official Selection

MR. IN-BETWEEN

UK 2001
Regie paul sarossy
Darsteller andrew howard, geraldine o'rawe, david calder, saeed jaffrey
Jon (erschreckend gut, rising star: Andrew Howard) ist der ideale Angestellte: dezent freundlich und gewissenhaft gründlich verrichtet er seine tägliche Arbeit. Dass er ein eiskalter Killer ist, der auch den dreckigsten Auftrag formvollendet ausführt, ahnt nicht einmal Cathy, die Frau eines alten Schulfreundes. Der schwermütige Hitman sieht in ihr den rettenden Anker, der seine unerträgliche Einsamkeit beenden könnte. Privates Glück aber hat sein sonst so fürsorglicher Boss und Lehrmeister nicht für den Eleven vorgesehen. Er verlangt bedingungslose Loyalität. Wer abtrünnig wird, sollte auf der Hut sein, um nicht eines Nachts sein eigenes Grab zu schaufeln... Schönheit und Schrecken der Londoner Unterwelt sind die Kehrseiten einer Medaille, deren Funkeln fasziniert und verstört. Namenlose Dekadenz, Existenzialismus und der Wunsch nach Erlösung bilden ein Muster aus Licht und Schatten, das tief in die Seele eines Verdammten leuchtet. Ein Festival Tipp!


Whoever is in-between, will be torn up. Henchman Jon (stunning: Andrew Howard), a perfect though lonesome artist of death steps into a terrifying love triangle. But his superior and guide claims unconditional loyalty – something Jon isn’t able to guarantee anymore. Now it might be him who must face death in this captivating study of beauty and darkness, stirring up a mesmerizing elegy about a lost soul looking for redemption... MR. IN-BETWEEN grabs you by the balls and won’t let you go. Brilliant, uncompromising, powerful – the best British gangster film since THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY.
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This is the best British gangster film since THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY. Jon Bennet (played by Andrew Howard) is an extremely good assassin. As such he is probably an evil man but it does not worry him. He has become an unquestioning weapon. He is in the employ of a kingpin (David Calder) far more evil than he is. But even assassins have innocent pasts. He runs into an old from school days and he is married to a mutual girl friend from school. Complicating matters is that they live near where he had a recent job and their young daughter may have seen him at the crime.

A big piece of what makes this film work is the depiction of the kingpin. Calder is a familiar actor in Britain, though not frequently seen in the US. He was seen in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. Here he creates one of the best screen villains in recent years. He is at once seductive and repellent like a beautiful venomous snake. His lair is underground, apparently in a sewer, where he lives like the king of sewer rats. It is the kingpin who pulls the strings that will control Bennet's life.

Paul Sarossy who directs spent most of his career as a cinematographer and like the kingpin's lair, he has molded images of class and style out of the darkness. By using semi-darkness and letting the colors of deep blue and black dominate every scene he makes the film visually as ominous as anything in this nether world. This is a world that is cold and unfriendly.

Sorossy creates a world of violence much more by what we hear than what we see. This is a film with a great deal of physical violence occurring just out of reach. We see very little but we hear a great deal more and we imagine more than that.

The screenplay is by Peter Waddington based on the novel by Neil Cross, but it is Sarossy's film all the way. It creates indelible images of evil." Online Critic.com
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