Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer star in this Brit flick about a posh bird, Alice (Anderson) and her bit of rough lover Adam (Dyer) who are attacked in the middle of the woods after a swanky party. Adam is viciously beaten and left for dead and Alice is brutally raped. A few weeks later, Alice inadvertently discovers where one of her attackers lives, and puts in motion a horrifying plan for revenge.
Straightheads has been described as violent, savage, brutal and a whole host of other things (which it is), but it’s not the most shocking film I have ever seen. The rape scenes are not salacious or excessively graphic, as you get the feeling director Dan Reed was very concerned with Gillian Anderson’s well-being. As for the revenge scenes, they too are not as brutal as I was expecting. This is because Reed holds back on excessively violent imagery, instead opting to make you queasy at the thought of what is happening without needing to see it.
Anderson is very good, as is Ralph Brown who plays one of her attackers, but sadly, Dyer is a bit unintentionally comical here. This is perhaps due to the radical shift his character goes through towards the end. He is led by Anderson throughout and is very against taking revenge, but the power goes to his head and suddenly Alice wants no part in it, just as Adam comes round to the idea.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Straightheads is essentially Straw Dogs version 2.0 but it is still a tense 80 minutes.
