Wednesday, March 6, 2019

LONDON FIELDS gives a Nod to Noir




Jeri Jacquin

Coming to DVD from director Mathew Cullen and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the mystery thriller that leaves the guess to the very end of LONDON FIELDS.

Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton) is a writer who tells the story of Nicola Six (Amber Heard), a woman who seems to have predicted her own death. She doesn’t let it stop her from weaving a tangled web of men in her life. Guy Clinch (Theo James) is taken by Nicola and wants to help her with friends who are in trouble.

There is Keith Talent (Jim Sturgess), a dart playing mouth of a man who can’t get a break in anything. Taking care of wife Kath (Cara Delevingne) and their young daughter, he is also taken with Nicola who makes him promises of money and fame.


Then there is Samson, a man who is trying to put into words how he feels about the love story he is writing because it ends up with death. Trying to find a way to make it all work and pick up the pieces of the crushed, he knows what has to be done but will he have the heart to do it.

Or does he?

Thornton as Young is a man twisted inside his own head. Writing something substantial means diving in deep to the characters he has created but real life and the page become intertwined. Thornton turns such a strong performance up to the very end.

Heard as Nicola is a woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t have a hard time making it clear. Using men to get what she wants means she’s a better actress than most actresses. Sucking them in and moving on seems to be her lifestyle until a few men doesn’t walk away so easily.

Sturgess as Talent is insanely insane! I mean that in the most respected way. He takes this character and drags him through the sewers to be one of the most low down people ever to be created but then again was he? Delevingne as his wife Kath seems to understand him and is perfectly okay with his peccadilloes.

James as Clinch is a man who falls and keeps falling. Wrapped up in everything that Nicola says and does puts him smack in the middle of danger or of becoming dangerous. He wants the woman and isn’t about to be told no – in any form.


Props to Isaacs as Mark Asprey who reminds writers all over the world to NEVER tell anyone your ideas until you’ve finished your project and its signed, sealed and delivered. Once again Isaacs lets his bad boy shine.

Other cast include Gemma Chan as Petronella, Jaimie Alexander as Hope, Lily Cole as Trish Shirt, Emily Kincaid as Enola Gay, Michael Shaeffer as Tony, Henry Garrett as Dink, Belle Williams as Juniper, Johnny Depp as Chick Purchase and Jason Isaacs as Mark Asprey.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment brings award-winning global product and new entertainment to DVD, Bluray, and Digital HD. There amazing collection offers fans an opportunity to expand their own home libraries with the best films. To discover what other titles they have please visit www.fox.com.

London Fields was written by Martin Amis in 1989 before making its way from script to screen. Toted as a black comedy as well as a murder mystery, there is also a sense of never quite knowing who is telling the truth and what is real – even after the credits role.


The film is full of intrigue and guess work from start to finish. Then again that’s the idea being a twisted thriller, reel the audience in, make them have a huge question mark above their heads while they unravel everything and reconnect the dots only to shoot it all down with an ending that shocks.

In the end – she already knows what we don’t!

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