twenty8k

Stars: Parminder Nagra, Jonas Armstrong, Nichola Burley, Kaya Scodelario, Michael Socha, Stephen Dillane, Sebastian Nanena, Kierston Wareing, Melanie Hill, Tom Knight

Director: David Kew, Neil Thompson

The title of this crime thriller - although shot in widescreen, it would play better on TV - refers to an East End gang deep into drugs and prostitution. Naturally, corrupt police and politicians are also involved, but the rather overlong story focuses on Vip (Nanena), a teenage Hindi Londoner who finds himself charged with murder after fleeing the scene of a killing with a gun in his hand.

His sister (ER's Nagra), a fashion executive, flies home from Paris and, believing her brother innocent (which, of course, as is the way of these things, he is) investigates those involved in the crime.

Like many a Silent Witness or Lewis episode on TV, the film is basically a whodunit, with the killer quite difficult to spot until towards what proves to be rather a rushed ending, with everything quickly but unsatisfactorily resolved. Performances are decent all round, and the film is sharply shot on location by Mark Beresford Jones.

David Quinlan

UK 2012. UK Distributor: Cine Britannia. Colour (unspecified).
102 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 1, Swearing 2.

Review date: 08 Sep 2012