TIFF REVIEW: TYRANNOSAUR

Some films aren’t meant to be enjoyed. Some films are meant to be endured, respected, engaged, and remembered…but not enjoyed. The reason some films cannot be enjoyed is because they offer precious little joy at all, and TYRANNOSAUR is that sort of film.

The movie is the first feature film directed by Paddy Considine (IN AMERICA, HOT FUZZ). Considine doesn’t make any effort at misdirecting the audience in terms of what’s coming as in the opening scene a dog is killed by its owner. The curious thing, is that even after that deplorable action, we stay with the man we’ve just so shockingly been introduced to. His name is Joseph (Peter Carlton), and he is a terribly broken man. He seems to sway between two extremes: He either keeps entirely to himself, or he lashes out violently at others.

One day, through necessity, he makes a stop in a thrift shop, and its there that he fist encounters Hanna (Olivia Colman). She doesn’t share at first, but we eventually learn that Hanna has her own problems, many of them stemming back to her husband (Eddie Marsan). She and Joseph slowly form an uneasy bond…but one that will be tested early and often.

In his talk after the film, Considine spoke about how personal this project was to him, with traces of his real life experience dotting the narrative. I have to commend him for being so forthcoming in his work, as I believe it’s those moments of honesty that give this film such resonance. Every character involved is tremendously damaged, and usually it’s the damaged people that are off-putting. In this film though, Considine has given two of his leads glimmers of goodness that sparkle through, and it allows us to forgive them their sins and listen to their story a little longer.

As for the third, that would be Eddie Marsan and his truly heinous performance as Hanna’s unnamed husband. The man has to embody a role that is bound to disgust audiences, and that he is able to do so in such convincing fashion couldn’t possibly have been easy. Months ago, I put out a question about actors who draw you into a film on name alone, and in a short amount of time Eddie Marsan has become that for me.

Of all the films I saw at TIFF this year, the audience only gave standing ovations twice (I heard reports of one or two more, but by & large they were rare). That a film this brutal and bitter was able to connect with my audience is an achievement within itself. After all, it’s a film I think a lot of people should see…even if they won’t entirely like what they will see.