Breaking the monotonous deluge of Sarf London gangster flicks that have followed in the wake of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", this intelligent little thriller owes more to Franz Kafka and Jean-Paul Sartre than Guy Ritchie.
Set in a surreal underworld of cockney gangsters, tattooed mob bosses and contract slayings, "Mr In-Between" is as engrossing as it is unexpected. Jon (Andrew Howard) is the hitman of the title, and while he may not look like much, his blond locks and youthful face hide years of experience - offing people in painfully effective ways.
Kept on a short leash by the 'Tattooed Man', a shadowy mob boss who feeds him a steady diet of heroin and philosophy books, he's caught in-between the real world and a drugged up, existential nightmare of his own making.
A chance meeting with an old school friend (Andrew Tiernan) shows him a mirror image of the normal existence he could have had. It's only then that Jon is forced to realise how much he's given up to spend his life in the shadows.
A cinematographer by trade, director Paul Sarossy imbues this unusual setup with some alluringly strange moments. He turns the grubby sets into an off-kilter realm of drab colours and strange camera angles, all overlaid with a soundtrack of white noise. It's an apt framework for a script packed with philosophical musings like: "You must revel in what you are. You do what you do by choice".
Commendably ambitious, but only occasionally successful in its attempt to revive a moribund genre, this works best as a story of one man's descent into hell.
Playing Mephistopheles to Jon's Faust, the Tattooed Man tempts his victim into an existential trap laced with heroin, and in which the expression of free will can only lead to disaster. With its bold expressionism, "Mr In-Between" does the opposite for British cinema, giving it a much needed shot in the arm.
Mr In-Between (2003)
