Going Off Big Time

UK 2000

Reviewed by Keith Perry

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

Liverpool, the present. A criminal gang, led by Mark Clayton, raids a pub, and crime lord George Hannassey's son Billy is murdered. Mark hides out in the home of his solicitor, Stacey Bannerman, and recounts his life of crime.

Sent to prison for mistakenly assaulting a policeman, Mark gained power through the advice of an older inmate, Murray, and protected the younger, volatile Ozzi. On release, Mark could not find work, and together with Ozzi formed a gang which sold drugs and ran a protection racket. Mark eliminated local dealer McCann, but was warned off achieving higher status by George. Mark met Natasha, an independently wealthy woman, and saw her as a way out of crime. When their relationship fell apart, Mark initiated the attack on the pub.

Hannassey's henchmen execute Ozzi, seemingly unaware that it was he, not Mark, who shot Billy. Mark attempts to reach the airport, but on stopping in traffic is gunned down by Billy's younger brother.

Review

After the likes of Essex Boys and Gangster No.1, it's oddly pleasing to find a British gangster film whose main fault is being too affable. "He was more Stringfella than Goodfella," says the film's protagonist, gang leader Mark, of a local bigwig, and this light-hearted aside neatly sums up Going Off Big Time itself. There is no insight into crime here; no gun fetishism; no homoerotic swank. Anecdotal comedy is the strongest facet of the script by Neil Fitzmaurice (who also plays Mark), the prize moment being a flashback from hardman Murray (whom Mark meets while in jail) to when he was held hostage by cowards. Too scared of reprisals to touch him, his captors end up letting him win at cards while ordering him a takeaway. "It was like being kidnapped by the fuckin' Samaritans," Murray reminisces.

The opening act is overly familiar, comprising a gang raid on a pub and a murder in the heat of the moment - which leads Mark to hide out in the flat of Stacey, his solicitor, while the net closes. But then Mark begins to tell Stacey about how his life of crime began, and within the first flashback something surprising occurs. Rather than a youth ogling the displays of unlawful wealth, what we see is a gormless, muss-haired Mark being ditched by his girlfriend - an event which led him to help the police and ironically sealed his criminal fate. The same predicament leads to the disastrous raid on the pub; dumped by Natasha - his one chance for salvation - Mark vents his spleen on the local drug lord's eldest son.

Using Stacey, a lawyer who specialises in defending criminals, as the foil to Mark's self-pitying rags-to-riches story shows dramatic guile. But she proves to be merely sanctimonious, simply because when it comes to Mark, debut director Jim Doyle wants to hate the crime but love the criminal. Fitzmaurice's queasily sensitive face - unlined even in close-up - refutes Stacey's insistence that he has no one to blame but himself, while Mark's entry into the lower ranks of the crime heap is depicted as a mix of larking and retaliatory violence. Doyle continually pushes him out to the edge of the frame, hemming him in against industrial expanses or slabs of prison wall. (Director of photography Damian Bromley uses the widescreen frame most effectively within tight spaces.)

Going Off Big Time is the latest in a string of British gangster movies, but it would be wrong to label this current rag-bag collection a cycle, since the films barely refer to each other or form a progression. This said, like the film-makers behind such films as Snatch, Doyle and Fitzmaurice allude to mainstays of US gangster movies throughout. They occasionally undermine them, but, for the most part, are unable to build anything substantial in their place. And ultimately it is this - rather than the Liverpudlian accents - which marks out Going Off Big Time as a thoroughly English modern crime move.

Credits

Director
Jim Doyle
Producer
Ian Brady
Screenplay
Neil Fitzmaurice
Director of Photography
Damian Bromley
Editor
Julian Day
Production Designer
David Butterworth
Music
Andy Roberts
©KT Films Limited
Production Companies
KT Films/Entertainment Films presents in association with Catalysm/SpinOff
Co-producer
Jonny Boston
Line Producer
Amanda Nally
Associate Producers
Tony Fitzmaurice
Richard Cave
Production Co-ordinator
Elaine Grainger
Unit Manager
Kevin Jackson
Location Manager
Paul Grant
Post-production Supervisor
Mark Gardner
Assistant Directors
Steven Cheers
Suzy Mottram
Tommy Banks
Script Supervisor
Mandy Mason
Casting Director
Elaine Grainger
Special Effects
Firepower
Art Director
Duncan Howell
Costume Designer
Monica Aslanian
Wardrobe Supervisor
Kevin Pollard
Make-up/Hair Designer
Josy Howard
Titles Design
Liam Corner
Kathryn Davey
Titles/Optical Effects
Cine Image
Visual Effects Supervisor:
Steve Boag
Optical Printer:
Charles Green
Optical Co-ordinator:
Martin Bullard
Musicians
Guitar/Sequencing:
Andy Roberts
Guitar/Bass Guitar:
Mark Griffiths
Piano:
Chris Parren
Drums:
Ralph Salmins
Sound Engineer
Steve Parr
Soundtrack
"Oyster Heaven", "Hanging with the Moon", "Jake's Decision", "North South Divide", "Janette I'll Never Forget", He's Cheeky, He's Naughty" - Michael J. Moran & Laurence O'Toole; "Mr. Wrong" - Jezebelle; "Thanks and Praises" - Inexile; "Get Down"; "Fire" from purification ritual "Moving into One", "Mind Over Matter"; "Go"; "Change"
Production Sound Mixer
Gary Desmond
Dubbing Mixing
Aad Wirtz
John Falcini
Dialogue Editor
John Falcini
Effects Editor
Graham Lawrence
Foley
Artists:
Andie Derrick
Peter Burgis
Editor:
James Loosemore
Cast
Neil Fitzmaurice
Mark Clayton
Dominic Carter
Ozzi Shepherd
Sarah Alexander
Stacey Bannerman
Nick Lamont
Paul
Gabbi Barr
Natasha
Nick Moss
Charlie
Vinnie Adams
John
Peter Kay
Flipper
Huggy Leaver
Mario
Del Henney
George Hannassey
Stan Boardman
Arthur McCann
Bernard Hill
Murray
Jimmy Gallagher
Billy Hannassey
Sidney Livingstone
Mr Phillips
Vincent McGuire
Uncle Harry
Jason Salkey
night-club manager
Jack Marsden
prison bully
Matt Mason
prison cellmate
Steve Hillman
prison landing officer
Bernard Merrick
kitchen warder
Colin Culross
Ali Bowers
Jimmy Davis
van driver
Joanne Sherryden
Cathy Banks
James McMartin
Hannassey's heavy
Kevin Knapman
drugged clubber/hitman
Steve Nation
Hannassey's hitman
Sean McKee
Kenny Galon
Steve McHee
Matt Byrne
pub friends
Vickie Gates
female decoy
Warren Donnelly
Alan Donnelly
Gary Cargill
masked men
Anthony Audenshaw
Simon Lloyd
Jon Carver
Liam Hennessey
policemen
Liam Kettle
Ian Conningham
Steve Cheers
icecream customers
Alan Sale
foreman
James Culshaw
man at fridge
Tommy Donbavand
barbecue chef
Ron Harrison
Natasha's father
Karen Hope
Ann Casey
Vicky Hammond
Ozzi's girl
Jonny Boston
motor bike rider
Keith Brady
Paul Hartley
plain clothes policemen
Liam Scott
assaulted policeman
Kevin Brannigan
Tommy Aslanian
Roy Cruthers
Sean Halligan
Gary Case
prison guards
Paul Alty
McCann's boy
Cerys Griffiths
news reporter
Euan MacDonald
race commentary
Kev Seed & The Breakfast Crew, Radio City 96.7, Liverpool
radio sequences
Certificate
18
Distributor
Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
7,806 feet
86 minutes 45 seconds
Dolby Digital
Colour by
DeLuxe
2.35:1 [Panavision]
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011