A tale of life inside that, despite a decent cast, can't shake off a naivety about violence for its own sake
Craig Vivieiros's film is a violent prison movie, part character drama and part exploitation shocker ? and it may well shift a good many DVD units to a certain young male customer-base. Its brutality and fear suggest an allusion to Alan Clarke: it's a film with "daddy" issues. John Lynch plays Jack, a long-term prisoner nearing release, who is dreading life on the outside because it will mean he has to confront the emotional reality of a family tragedy. Martin Compston is Paul, a scared young kid, just admitted to the prison, who is instantly befriended by a psychotic, predatory creep called Baron (Craig Parkinson). Jack wants to take him under his wing as his father-figure. It will mean a battle for his soul with the vicious and violent Baron. This movie is put together persuasively, and there is an impressive cast here, and the time-honoured storyline of the old lag and the new boy ? familiar from A Prophet to Ronnie Barker's Porridge ? is retold confidently enough. But the final revelatory twist is just too farfetched to take seriously, and there is an uncomfortable naivety in the film's assumption that violence, when practised by the righteous, can be cathartic or redemptive.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/23/ghosted-film-review
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