The film is about the hope that after Mitchel (Colin Farrell) is released from prison, he decides to wash his hands in the golden basin and no longer set foot in the rivers and lakes. He was hired as a handyman and bodyguard for the actress Charlotte (Keira Knightley). In the film, Mitchel and Charlotte can be said to have the same disease. Although the two are completely different in social status and life background, both of them are trapped by their past lives and their own reputations. At the same time, both of them hate their own way of life, and want to seek real freedom. In the same way, the environment in which the two of them are living constantly creates obstacles to their efforts to seek change.
Charlotte, tired of fame, has become a talker in every move. As a public figure, she is like a prisoner bird. In order to avoid tabloid reporters, he has lived in a self-enclosed environment for a long time. Her house was stared at by a group of tabloid reporters, making her afraid to go out and open the curtains. Because of her name, she not only lost her privacy, but also the freedom of a normal person. She once tried to get out of her house, but every time because of being watched, she had to rush back to her closed private realm. The people who recognized her in the store and the ubiquitous tabloid reporters used their eyes and cameras to block Charlotte's path to freedom all the time.
In the same way, Mitchel couldn't get rid of the yakuza because of his reputation. Gang boss Gant (Ray Winstone) took a fancy to the value of Mitchel's previous reputation, and kept threatening him, hoping that Mitchel would join his criminal gang. Although Mitchel was determined to make a break with his past, he still couldn't get rid of the trouble of finding the door. It can be seen that although he was legally free after he was released from prison, he failed to gain freedom in the true sense. Although Mitchel seems to be freer in action than Charlotte, and dared to face people who hinder him from seeking freedom, he also lives like a prisoner bird, enclosed in an invisible cage. The price for the two to seek freedom is also expensive. One left London and moved to the United States; one died.
Originally, with such a story as the base, the director can make a movie that is praiseworthy. In fact, the film’s efforts to present Ou Fan also makes it different from the American genre crime films. However, the director has inserted too many branches in the plot and character settings, which distracted the audience from the main line of the story. At the same time, because the branch lines are too scattered, the relationship between the characters and the motivation of the action have not been fully explained. As a result, the film's narrative logic and rationality are greatly compromised. It can only be said that William Monahan failed to grasp the proper measure when adapting and directing the film. Too much attention to copy the past success in similar movies, but suffer from it.
View more about London Boulevard reviews
