Something of a mix between the recent boxing pic, "The Boxer," and a variation on the middle- aged man trying to help some younger boys story of "Dead Poets Society" fame, director/co- writer Shane Meadow's feature film debut occasionally shows promise, but otherwise comes off as a low budget, poorly constructed bit of filmmaking.
Although it features a decent performance by actor Bob Hoskins, this black and white, near documentary style film features a weak, loosely assembled plot that doesn't stand up under much scrutiny. Meadows and co-writer Paul Fraser tell us too many things in narrative instead of allowing us to see and experience them for ourselves, and thus that lessens the picture's impact to such an extent that we don't personally get involved in the story (unlike "The Boxer" that follows something of a similar storyline).
While we're told that the young men are troubled, we only see a few pieces to indicate that (beyond Gadget's drug problem) and thus don't feel Darcy's urgency to reopen the boxing club. Worse, however, is that if these guys really were such troublemakers, there's no way they'd join that club without facing serious repercussions if they didn't. Other than Gadget who will go to jail if not for Darcy's pleading to the court for leniency, we're supposed to believe that a brief soccer scene -- where Darcy challenges the guys to take shots at him as goalie, and if they miss enough of them, they have to join his club -- is enough impetus to make them agree.
Then there's the issue of the guys suddenly all changing their ways and getting along without much effort from Darcy. On his part he does tell some inspirational stories, but only in voice over narration as he writes (or reads) them in/from his diary. Don't expect any moving "Dead Poets Society" or "Good Will Hunting" scenes here, for this "therapy" or teaching is mostly subliminal at best.
The film also tries to tackle many differing issues, but skirts over much of them without any rounding success. First, there's the whole bit about the economically depressed suburbs in which these characters reside and how Thatcherism (the film is set when Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister) destroyed these towns and shattered these young men's dreams. While we're told this in Hoskins' voice overs and we see the desolate settings -- all of which is the backdrop for the story -- it's never explored beyond a superficial glance (The title, "TwenyFourSeven," by the way, refers to these people being stuck in the same conditions twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week).
Several other scenes deal with dysfunctional families and domestic abuse, but again Meadows uses that just as a filler. Beyond assuming that the substandard economic conditions have caused such strife, we never know much about these matters and they're not even remotely explored. The same holds true for the large ensemble of young, troubled characters, many inhabited by friends of Meadows who have little or no acting experience. Although we can differentiate them by their appearance, except for a few we know next to nothing about these characters. Most are interchangeable with the others, and with the thick British accents one has a hard time even knowing their names, let alone what they're saying.
Hoskins ("Mona Lisa," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"), on the other hand, is given a plum role and he plays it with the relish of someone who's been waiting for such a part for quite some time. Although we never get to know the man as well as we'd like (or should -- a few well-written interchanges between him and one or two of the young men would have easily worked) he's always interesting to watch on screen.
Despite the plot problems, Meadows occasionally shows promise and some of his scenes are nicely done and occasionally intriguing -- including a fun training sequence in Wales, as well as a nice, intimate and self-inspirational story about this little planet that we all occupy. His decision to shoot in high contrast, and extremely stark black and white film is obviously meant to symbolize the living conditions of this neighborhood (which it effectively does), but it often gives the picture too much of a low budget feel and hints that the director is trying to emulate the look of "Raging Bull" (Martin Scorses's acclaimed and highly stylized black and white film about prizefighter Jake La Motta).
Unfortunately, this is no "Raging Bull" or "The Boxer," nor the before mentioned films with Robin Williams playing the mentor to impressionable, young men. While it's easy to see what Meadows is trying to achieve, most of the plot comes off as too contrived and hastily constructed for us ever to really get involved. To top it off, the ending -- while shocking -- isn't at all congruous with the rest of the story and feels too mechanical for its own good. Other than Hoskins' decent performance as the lead character, there isn't much else present to cause us to recommend this film. Thus, we give "TwentyFourSeven" a 3 out of 10.