Pusher - Movie Review

Rating: 2 out of 5

This film may look sleek and urgent, but it never feels like anything more than a run-of-the-mill London drugs thriller. The cast is good, and the imagery is striking, but it never adds anything new to the genre. And it certainly doesn't have the bracing impact of the original 1996 film, which introduced the world to Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive).

It centres on the young drug dealer Frank (Coyle), who with his friend Tony (Webb) is trying to bring a huge stash of drugs from Amsterdam to London. The cops are brutally trying to force Frank into turning in evidence against his supplier Milo (Buric), which puts him in a very bad position. With Milo's henchman (Ferda) breathing down his neck, Frank tries to call in his debts and raise enough cash so he and his stripper girlfriend Flo (Deyn) can get away. But all of his plans seem to go awry, which strains his relationship with Flo because he doesn't want to tell her the truth.

This is one of those movies in which events squeeze in on the central character from every side, forcing him to increasingly desperate actions. And Spanish director Prieto has a lurid visual style that jolts the screen with energy, even if it leaves everything feeling rather superficial. Coyle finds Frank's intriguing edges, playing him as a cocky nice guy whose confidence is beaten out of him. As he becomes a shell of himself, we have quite a bit of sympathy with him. So it's a shame that we never really feel much chemistry between Frank and Flo.

By contrast, the much more interesting relationship is between Frank and Tony, but the filmmakers seem afraid to explore this with any depth. They also sidestep the plot's most fascinating point: that Frank is willing to let loyalty to Milo unravel his whole life. And by missing everything of interest as the story races to a strangely unsatisfying resolution, they just leave us cold.

Rich Cline

Facts and Figures

Year: 2012

Genre: Thriller

Run time: 110 mins

In Theaters: Friday 30th August 1996

Production compaines: Balboa Entertainment

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 2 / 5

IMDB: 7.4 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Luis Prieto

Producer: Rupert Preston, Christopher Simon, Felix Vossen

Screenwriter: Matthew Read

Starring: Kim Bodnia as Frank, Mads Mikkelsen as Tonny, Laura Drasbæk as Vic, Zlatko Buric as Milo, Slavko Labovic as Radovan, Peter Andersson as Hasse, Vanja Bajicic as Branco, Lisbeth Rasmussen as Rita, Levino Jensen as Mike, Nicolas Winding Refn as Brian, Thomas Bo Larsen as Junkie, Lars Bom as Uro'er, Michael Hasselflug as Uro'er, Jesper Lohmann as Mikkel, Steen Fridberg as Lasse, Gordon Kennedy as Anders

Also starring: Richard Coyle, Bronson Webb, Agyness Deyn, Mem Ferda, Paul Kaye, Neil Maskell