Villain movie review & film summary (2020)

The tragic nature of Eddie’s story is enthusiastically foregrounded during the movie’s opening scene, when Sean is stripped and threatened at gunpoint by Roy and his perpetually annoyed heavy Johnny (Tomi May). Sean’s the kind of helpless supporting character who seemingly only exists to make our antihero protagonist look good, so of course he pees on himself while Roy threatens him. Sean also immediately overwhelms Eddie with his problems after he picks his brother up from jail, especially Sean’s drug abuse, and his impossibly high outstanding debt to Roy.

Of course, Eddie, an unbelievably Byronic but noble guy, tries to rescue his little brother and their pub. Eddie’s so generically decent that he gives heart-felt goodbyes to his prison’s guards while he’s being released (“Look after that family, Danny”). He’s also got a comically short fuse, as we see in an early scene where he thrashes a pair of disrespectful and heavily mobbed-up publicans. Still, the thing to remember about Eddie is that while he’s got a big, bleeding heart, he’s also a saint-like pragmatist, as we see in his interactions with everybody, including his estranged daughter Chloe (Izuka Hoyle), and his loyal BFF Mike (Mark Monero), as well as more unsavory types, like Roy, whom Eddie talks to with hand-wringing patience, and Sean (who we’ll get to in a moment). Eddie’s just a tough, but regular bloke, trying to get by under impossible circumstances.

At least, that’s how Eddie’s supposed to come across. In the movie, he’s mostly humanized by Fairbrass’ tough guy charisma and sensitivity. Fairbrass almost sells otherwise awkward scenes between Eddie and Chloe just by exhibiting a desperate kind of neediness whenever his character affects a paternal tone with his daughter. Which is especially crucial given that the dialogue in these scenes is forgettable, and so is their direction, and sickly lighting. Fairbrass’ commanding performance is not strong enough to rescue grubby kitchen sink scenes featuring Chloe, who is presented as just another problem that Eddie has to take care of, what with her young child, and her predictably abusive boyfriend.

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