4,3,2,1 - Movie Review

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I must admit a had no more idea about this film than I do about the latest season of Big Brother, but having seen a trailer for it I thought I'd give it a whirl. After the fact I have to say I was very impressed by the latest offering from Noel Clarke, (yes, that guy from Kidulthood and Adulthood). It follows a troupe of four girl friends as they pick their way through their own problems as well as being accidentally caught up in a diamond heist.

Being Clarke's second outing as a director it is clear to see that there is a great young talent at work here, albeit in a somewhat music video style of filmmaking, fast paced and definitely aimed at the younger demographic. Also just his second attempt at writing a full length film, his first being Adulthood (2008), he writes four very believable and different females well, which is even more difficult to achieve given the style of storytelling he chooses to do it.

Having begun with a fairly standard meeting of the four main characters, we quickly learn that she is the weird one, she's the rich one, she's the hard one, and she's the American. This normally would be a pretty boring unimaginative beginning but it's dealt with quickly enough and we get right down to business with getting to know the four girls in more detail. The structure was a nice surprise deviation from the normal 'this is the main guy and we like him because', in that we are given four main characters to explore and they are all given just enough screen time so we get to know them and understand what's going on with them without getting bored with the one character being on for too long. This new approach is given added weight when we see the first girl’s story. The character of Shannon, confidently portrayed by Ophelia Lovibond, is dealing with some very complex issues in her own life and feels deserted by her friends and family, we quickly gravitate towards her plight and spend the rest of the film understanding why her friends could not be there to support her.

The diamond heist, lest we forget, is the catalyst for a lot of the story and goes unnoticed for the longest time by the main protagonists. However it is well shown in the few snippets of news footage and conversation between the thieves and we get the sense of a world outside these four females and gives another dimension to the film. The MTV style of movie making does not detract from the story and indeed aids the telling of the tale, and is immeasurably helped along by some awesome cameos. Kevin Smith, Sean Pertwee and, um, Ben Shepherd all throw in a bit to help the young cast out to brilliant effect.

I would highly recommend this to anyone, particularly as it written by a guy our age, and played by girls our age. It combines a more youthful approach to filmmaking with a very mature and well-woven storyline and is well worth the trip to the local cinema.

Andrew Revill