Director and co-writer Nicolas Winding Refn strives mightily to match his star crescendo for crescendo, which can be exhausting. But the film is nimble and spare enough to absorb most of the director's outré inspirations.
Bronson (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:64
Fresh:50
Rotten:14
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Undeniably gripping, Bronson forces the viewer to make some hard decisions about where the line between art and exploitation lies.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violent and disturbing content, graphic nudity, sexuality and language.
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 9, 2009 Limited
Synopsis:
In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post...
In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post office. Swiftly apprehended and originally sentenced to 7 years in jail, Peterson has subsequently been behind bars for 34 years, 30 of which have been spent in solitary confinement. During that time, Michael Petersen, the boy, faded away and 'Charles Bronson,' his superstar alter ego, took center stage...
With the same brutal yet operatic flair he brought to his previous films, "The Pusher Trilogy, " director Nicholas Winding Refn gets inside the mind of Bronson, and delivers not only a portrait of an artist bereft of an outlet, but also a scathing indictment of celebrity culture.
Tom Hardy plays the title character with disturbing intensity who physically transformed himself for the role. Hardy said, "The opportunity to play such a complex and tormented real-life character was a unique challenge for me, and one that required a great level of commitment and understanding."
Director Nicolas Winding Refn says about his new film, "It is Bronson's unending thirst for celebrity that has kept in prison for so long. And it was this particular aspect of his personality that we tried to capture in the film."
The screenplay was written by Brock Norman Brock (Dogging: A Love Story) and Nicolas Winding Refn. BRONSON is produced by Rupert Preston (Faintheart, Dirty Sanchez: The Movie) and Daniel Hansford and executive produced by Allan Niblo, James Richardson, Paul Martin and Nick Love.--© Magnolia Pictures
Starring: Tom Hardy, Hugh Ross, Juliet Oldfield, Jonny Philips
Starring: Tom Hardy, Hugh Ross, Juliet Oldfield, Jonny Philips, James Lance, Amanda Burton, Matt King, Kelly Adams
Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
Screenwriter: Nicholas Winding Refn, Brock Norman Smith
Producer: Danny Hansford, Rupert Preston
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
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Reviews for Bronson
It’s a meditation on the art of rage -- an action painting passing itself off as an action movie.
Done differently, the cat-and-mouse brawling could get tiresome, but Tom Hardy as Bronson -- with his shaved head, handlebar moustache, and glittering eyes -- is mesmerizing.
If you want to spend two hours with a psychopath who loves nothing more than getting naked and brawling with prison guards, this is for you. I prefer vintage Kurosawa.
A figure this luridly fascinating, a personality this ludicrously outsized, warrants something more than your typical biopic.
A stylized portrait of a criminal famous in his native Britain as perhaps the most violent man in Her Majesty's prison system, Bronson serves primarily as a showcase for Tom Hardy's undeniably brilliant performance.
Strap yourself in for a jaw-dropping performance from Tom Hardy as he completely inhabits the role of Britain's most notorious prisoner in this highly stylised piece of mischievous cinematic vaudeville.
...not a great film but garners a strong performance from its star [Tom Hardy].
Nicolas Winding Refn ("The Pusher" trilogy) takes an experimental approach to the biopic, letting his subject guide the way through his life so far as if it were a piece of performance art.
Hardy's range is impressive, and he makes Refn's latest an arresting spectacle, if not a particularly enlightening one.
“Nuffin’ wonky about my upbringing,” Bronson says, early on. Nothing wonky about Hardy’s performance, either.
[Tom Hardy gives] one of the best performances of the year, maybe. It is certainly one of the most committed.
Charles Bronson seems like a bit of a sweetheart, when he's not trying to gouge someone's eyes out.
Bronson is one of those “based on a true story” dramatizations where the theatrically staged drama only gets in the way of the more interesting truth.
Refn presents this jolly madman in a variety of showbiz fantasies (wearing clown makeup, addressing a packed theater) to tease out the weird disjuncture between his penal isolation and his tabloid fame in the UK.
It's impossible to deny Hardy's astounding performance, which partially redeems the picture. Looking like a mad circus strongman, his moustache seeming to twirl all by itself, he's so fully immersed in his character, you fear for his sanity.
He's spent 34 years behind bars, mostly in solitary. When the movie ends, you'll feel you've done hard time yourself.
The movie takes on a fearsome purity, refusing to find reasons, indifferent to motives, not even finding causes and effects. It is 92 minutes of rage, acted by Tom Hardy.
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