The Long Good Friday

"Harold" (Bob Hoskins) has spent the last ten years building up a business of the back off criminal enterprises and is about to try to go straight with an hude dockside development he hopes to sell on to some Americans. They've arrived in London and he is all set to wine and dine them to seal the deal when things start going quite spectacularly wrong. His best pal "Colin" (Paul Freeman) is killed after seeking a quickie in the local swimming baths and one of his pubs suffers from what they conveniently describe as a "gas leak". He knows that someone is trying to queer his pitch, and that probably points to an insider. Girlfriend "Victoria" (Helen Mirren)? Ambitious sidekick "Jeff" (Derek Thompson) or maybe enforcer "Harris" (Bryan Marshall)? Well "Harold" has to mobilise his entire organisation if he's to salvage what he's got already let alone do any kind of deal with his already sceptical potential business partners. I don't think you could ever describe Hoskins as a versatile actor, but here he carries off the role as the increasingly bewildered gangster with skill and director John Mackenzie keeps the pace moving along well as we all try to guess just who's trying to bring his empire crashing down. Mirren isn't really on screen often enough to make much difference, but eagle-eyed folks might spot Pierce Brosnan and Karl Howman making up the numbers as the Irish continent who appear to be more complicit in the shenanigans. It hasn't aged terribly well but is still a solid drama with plenty of threat and thankfully, precisely no romance at all!