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“You’ve got one thing going for you Frank. You’re too old to die young.” - Rizza
Directed and co-written by debutant director Rupert Wyatt, The Escapist was written with its lead in mind. Brian Cox (Zodiac) in a virtuoso performance, stars as Frank, a ‘lifer’ resigned to spending his days in the slammer. He knows the system and how to circumnavigate the creepy redhead kingpin, Rizza (Damian Lewis), and his delinquent brother Tony, played predictably by Steven Mackintosh. After hearing of his daughter's second overdose however, he decides that his escape must be imminent, declaring "I have to make things right." To the film’s credit, we are never told Frank’s crime, so we’re not forced to judge him.
Through necessity and duty, Frank recruits fellow malcontents Joseph Fiennes, Seu Jorge, Liam Cunningham and Dominic Cooper. Jorge is Batista, the clink’s librarian with a ‘major’ in chemistry, Cunningham is his gruff confidant with vital know-how, and Cooper is the archetypal ‘fresh meat’ so young and pretty that he’d be jailbait if he wasn’t already in the slammer. Joseph Fiennes – normally a big girl’s period-piece-playing blouse is pure, dark nihilism in his role as a pugilist burglar. And a wily thief is crucial to any successful prison break, after all.
The Escapist’s fractured narrative sets a cracking pace from the start. As it opens we see the inmates in the thick of their escape. It flashes back and forward, from lead up to showing the escape unfold and unravel. This structure allows a twist that helps the film rise above the traditional prison break yarn. It is surprisingly easy to follow, as the thread at its heart is simply the tale of a broken man seeking redemption.
The Escapist has been compared to The Shawshank Redemption. Hmm. While Shawshank reveals the human spirit's noble capacity for patience and endurance, this is humanity at its more base level of grim determination and desperation. But it’s no less moving for it. Throughout, the art direction is a thoughtfully detailed expression of that struggle. The film was shot largely in Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol: its iron terraces and staircases gritty with rust and grimy with blood.
There’s a formulaic reason we love prison break films. The plan that’s so crazy it just might work, the assembling of the team (think a dysfunctional Blues Brothers), the acquiring of tools, and the dénouement when the plan goes down the sewer, literally. It’s cleverer than most films of its genre, but The Escapist doesn’t disappoint as artful action either – it’s chock full of eeeuws and arghs, but mercifully light on tragic musing. I loved it, and judging by the conversations I heard leaving the theatre, I wasn’t alone. Fantastic – go see it.
Credits
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Damian Lewis, Liam Cunningham, Seu Jorge
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