Director: Jim O'Hanlon
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 89 minutes
100 Streets (DVD) – Movie Review
In metropoles like New York or Tokyo, millions of people pass each other every day. With so many people living so close to each other, it’s impossible to know all your neighbors, let alone the entire neighborhood. And so, people keep passing by each other, day in, day out, without knowing one another, while living so close to each other. 100 streets follows the lives of three such people in London, all connected by the neighborhood they live in, yet at the same time so far apart.
Formal rugby player Max (Idris Elba) and his wife Emily (Gemma Arterton) live in a fancy home in London with their two children, but reality is far from what it looks like on the surface. Max has difficulties trying to cope with the end of his career and turned to drugs to fill the void. Both him and Emily realize that their marriage is nearly over, but they still somehow want to make it work, for the sake of their children.
Another storyline focuses on George’s (Charlie Creed-Miles) life. George is a taxi driver and a family guy. Unfortunately, he and his wife Kathy (Kierston Wareing) can’t have kids, thus they decided to contact an adoption agency. The process of adoption isn’t easy though, as both George and his wife constantly have to prove themselves worthy of being a parent. It’s taking a toll on George, and when he one day hits a woman with his taxi, his world collapses in an instant.
Lastly, there’s Kingsley (Franz Drameh). He’s a good kid, but comes from a bad environment. He’s a smalltime drug dealer, but deep down he realizes that he has to make something of himself if he ever wants to lead a happy life. It’s not easy to get out of the environment he’s in though, as the leader of the gang he’s in, Vincent (Ryan Gage) has a lot of influence among the gang members. Kinsley has to do community service because he got busted, and that’s when he meets Terence (Ken Stott), who at first may have looked like a silly old man, but actually becomes a friend and ally.
It seems to be almost a genre on its own, the kind of film where several different storylines are told at the same time, not connected at all, except randomly. We must admit that we usually aren’t wildly enthusiastic when it comes to this kind of film, simply because we often find them to keep everything to the surface, rather than telling a deeper story. In 100 streets, the three stories proved to be just enough to keep our attention, as there was still time for some development of the characters. It still doesn’t go very deep, but the stories are relatable nonetheless, and carry some truthfulness which appeals.
Overall, the actors were very well cast for their roles. Gemma Arterton is enjoyable to watch while her character is trying to decide how to move on. In life Also Charlie Creed-Miles does a very good job as George. He really shows his insecurities and fears so well that you will immediately feel sorry for the poor man. Franz Drameh doesn’t do a bad job either, yet his acting isn’t completely on point yet. He’s still young though, and we believe he hasn’t shown us all he’s got yet.
There is one extra feature that came with this film, which is a ‘behind the scenes’. In a clip of more than ten minutes, you’ll be shown where the idea for the film came from, how the script came to be, where it was shot and so on. It may be a standard feature to add to a release of a film, we still really appreciated it.
Conclusion
100 Streets is a film with quite a lot of lead characters, as well as storylines, yet director Jim O’Hanlon managed to still make time for character development, which we really appreciate. The cast did a good job on this film, and the extra feature, be it only one, was quite interesting as well. If you’re looking for something with a proper, deep storyline, you might want to skip this one, but if you’re not, this film’s charm might just draw you in.
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