TYRANNOSAUR offers a bleak picture of life in contemporary Britain. Joseph (Peter Mullan) is unemployed, with a tendency towards violence, who has contributed in no small part to his wife's early death (the Tyrannosaur of the title refers to his widow). He encounters Hannah (Olivia Colman), a middle-class woman working in a local charity shop, who offers to redeem him through prayer; initially he rejects the offer, but as the film unfolds he gradually becomes more and more involved with her. Hannah has as bleak a life as Joseph, having to cope with a violent husband (Eddie Marsan), who eventually rapes her. She stays at Joseph's house, and the two of them form a relationship, even though neither of them can disclose their feelings. Deliberately shot in washed-out colors, TYRANNOSAUR suggests that people are imprisoned by their existences, whether they are working- or middle-class. The only hope of 'redemption' - which is perhaps too optimistic a word - is to trust in one another, and even then, the redemption might be only temporary or partial. This is what Joseph and Hannah discover at the end, even if their meetings are only sporadic. Paddy Considine's film is not for the fainthearted; the language is extreme, and there are violent scenes throughout. It is well written, even though there are one or two implausibilities; at one point Joseph kills a neighbor's dog, who has previously mauled the child Sam (Samuel Bottomley). Normally any dog would have been put down by the authorities after such an incident has occurred. Nonetheless this low-budget film has a powerful effect.
Review of Tyrannosaur
