''London to Brighton'' is a 2006 British

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

film written and directed by

Paul Andrew Williams Paul Andrew Williams (born 1973 in Portsmouth, England) is a British film writer and director. He won the New Director's Award for his film '' London to Brighton'' in the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Career Williams began his caree ...

Plot

The film opens with a woman and child, Kelly and Joanne, bursting into a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

toilet. Joanne is crying and Kelly has a black eye. Eventually Kelly gets them on a train to Brighton, and it is clear they are running from someone. Joanne is an eleven-year-old runaway who is procured by a reluctant Kelly into having sex with an old violent mobster who is a

paedophile Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

. Kelly's pimp, Derek, bullies her into complying, but it all goes horribly wrong, and the old mobster is killed, presumably by one of the girls. The older man's son, Stuart, then forces Derek to find the girls. The film follows the duo's flight from London in the wake of what has happened. Arriving initially in Brighton, Kelly visits her friend Karen and tries to earn enough money through prostituting herself to help Joanne afford the train to

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, where the child's grandmother lives. The two are eventually tracked down by her pimp and his associate and taken to meet Stuart at a secluded field. Upon arrival, Kelly's pimp and associate are made to dig two graves, presumably for the girls. However, Stuart decides that the girls are the victims in this episode and decides instead to kill Kelly's pimp and associate. The film ends with Kelly and Joanne arriving at Joanne's grandma's house in Devon. Kelly watches from a distance as the girl and the grandmother hug, then turns away.

Main cast

Lorraine Stanley Lorraine Stanley (born 28 June 1976) is an English actress, known for playing Kelly in the 2006 film ''London to Brighton'' and Karen Taylor in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. Personal life Stanley was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, the da ...

as Kelly *

Georgia Groome Georgia Isobel Groome (born 11 February 1992) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''London to Brighton'' (2006) and '' Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging'' (2008). Early life Groome was born on 11 February 1992 i ...

as Joanne *

Sam Spruell Sam Spruell (born 1 January 1977) is a British actor. He is best known for playing villainous roles in film and television including Oleg Malankov in '' Taken 3'', Finn in '' Snow White and the Huntsman'' and Swarm in '' Doctor Who: Flux''. He a ...

as Stuart Allen *

Alexander Morton Alexander Morton (born 24 March 1945) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for his roles as Andy Semple in '' Take The High Road'', Golly MacKenzie in '' Monarch of the Glen'' and Billy Kennedy in ''River City''. Acting career Glasgow-born Mo ...

as Duncan Allen * Johnny Harris as Derek * Chloe Bale as Karen *

Claudie Blakley Claudie Blakley (born 4 January 1974) is an English actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1998, she won the Ian Charleson Award for her performance in ''The Seagull'' at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. She is ...

as Tracey *

Nathan Constance Nathan Constance (born 7 January 1979 in London) is an English actor and Voice Over Artist. He is best known for his work as a character performer in AAA Video Games, as handyman-turned-Prison Officer Josh Mitchell in prison drama series, '' Bad G ...

as Chum

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that the film has a 67% approval rating, based on 27 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "With its grimy sets, taut storyline, and relentless sense of doom, ''London to Brighton'' is an auspicious directorial debut by Paul Andrew Williams."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reports that the film has an average score of 55 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Awards and nominations

The film won a British Independent Film Award for Best Achievement in Production. Williams won the Golden Hitchcock award at the

Dinard Festival of British Cinema Dinard (; br, Dinarzh, ; Gallo: ''Dinard'') is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, Brittany, northwestern France. Dinard is on the Côte d'Émeraude of Brittany. Its beaches and mild climate make it a holiday destination, and this ...

, the New Director's Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Foyle Film Festival, and a Jury Prize at the Raindance Film Festival.

References

Vidiyum Munn ''Vidiyum Munn'' (''Before Dawn'') is a 2013 Indian Tamil thriller film directed by Balaji K. Kumar. The film stars Pooja Umashankar as Rekha, a prostitute trying to rescue a 12-year-old girl, played by Malavika Manikuttan, from the clutches of ...

''Vidiyum Munn - Tamil Movie - Inspired by London to Brighton'' {{DEFAULTSORT:London To Brighton 2006 films British crime films Films set in Brighton Films set in London Films about prostitution in the United Kingdom Social realism in film Vertigo Films films 2000s crime films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films

Plot

Main cast

Critical reception

Awards and nominations

References

Further reading

External links