Jenni uses her Film Degree to do a Review: Tyrannosaur
How do I start this? Oh, I know.
I love dinosaurs. Seriously.
Now, this movie,Tyrannosaur, has absolutely nothing to do with them.
Good, I'm glad we got past that.
Tyrannosaur is about Joseph, an aging, confused and violent man who comes across Hannah in a Christian charity shop. The troubles they deal with and attempt to hide is what brings them into a friendship with an unseen bond.
Since it's a tricky plot to summarise, I won't dwell on it and will instead point out how the title beautifully summarises the themes addressed. "Tyrannosaur" at a base level refers to the nickname that Joseph had for his deceased wife; but it also refers to Joseph himself, a fossil of a man, angry and alone in a cruel world; and finally, it has to do with the emotions and secrets that we keep buried and hidden deep within - which is communicated beautifully in the poster for the film.
After all, what makes this film compelling is not the secrets Joseph is repressing - but the ones that Hannah is hiding.
Have any of you heard of the novel called Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser? It is about a girl who follows her American dream of becoming an actress in the big city. I had to read it for literature in year 12 and I remember that during the meat of the story, I kept thinking to myself "Yes, so what? Why should I care about all these events?" - then within the last few pages the theme of the novel became clear, as Carrie sat rocking in her chair. And it all clicked. Suddenly, the rest of the book made sense and I felt an immense respect for it. The same sort of thing happened with Tyrannosaur.
I spent most of this movie feeling like it was just another old, angry man redemption story and nothing special. Then a major twist toward the end occurred, that was so skilfully brought about, that suddenly the film had weight. It had one-upped me and I retrospectively admired it for how clever it was.
Of course, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is phenomenally acted. Olivia Colman, who I am used to as a comedic actress thanks to Peep Show and Hot Fuzz, was fantastically tragic and Peter Mullan had the hard task of making a unsympathetic character redeemable as a good man -- I mean, he starts off the movie with a little animal cruelty, how do you come back from that? But they both succeed at their tasks and the quality of the character progression proves that.
This is good cinema done well, but nothing particularly new. It's not something I would recommend running out to see, but that twist is so masterfully done, I suppose you should see it for that.
Tyrannosaur was written and directed by Paddy Considine, and stars Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman.