Starring: Olivia Colman, Tom Hardy, Kate Fleetwood,
London Road
Director: Rufus Norris
Rating: 3.5/5
We have had a whole host of musicals already hit the big screen this year and London Road is one not to miss this summer if you are a fan of this genre... however, London Road is like no other musical that you will see this year.
London Road is based on the National Theatre musical of the same name, which in turn is based on a series of interviews done by Alecky Blythe about the Steve Wright killings in Ipswich.
Blythe has penned the screenplay as well as the stage play and has reunited with director Rufus Norris to bring it to the big screen for the first time.
London Road documents the events that shook Suffolk in 2006, when the quiet rural town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women. The residents of London Road had struggled for years with frequent soliciting and kerb-crawling on their street.
The film follows the community who found themselves at the epicentre of the tragic events. Using their own words set to an innovative musical score, London Road tells a moving story of ordinary people coming together during the darkest of experiences.
I know this is not the kind of subject matter that you would expect to see tackled in a musical, but this is a rather uplifting watch. London Road does not focus on the actual murders but how a community bands together and rebuilds after such terrible events.
There's no denying that London Road is a bold piece of cinema, at the same time, it is a thought provoking and, at times, dark and funny. This is not a polished musical where the cast simply burst into song, Blythe is a verbatim playwright and so she incorporates the way of speaking to music - it makes the musical moments seem more real and, in a way, raw and honest.
Olivia Colman and Tom Hardy are the big name actors on board and they both deliver terrific central performances. But London Road is more of an ensemble piece and many of the actors who were in the original stage show have also starred in the film.
London Road is like no musical we have seen before or are likely to see again as the conversational style musical numbers give this movie its own rather quirky identity.
Of course, this is a movie about rebuilding a community after a terrible event, but this is a movie that also poignantly and sensitively remembers the victims.
We have already been treated to a number of terrific British movies so far this year, and London Road is another that is not to be missed and is unlike anything else hitting the big screen this summer.