Jack Says (2008)

Crime Drama

Anchor Bay Entertainment

R4 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

Jack Says is a fine drama in the best British traditions. Although it is an independent production it has the quality acting and production values we have come to expect from the British without any superficial gloss. It is based on a graphic novel and the style has carried through to the film – dark, little colour and a series of rapidly changing moments rather than a slow steady development.

Jack is a low level gangster, not much more than hired muscle. He is known to the police but they are more interested in his boss, the Guvnor (Mike Reid’s last performance). As the story opens Jack (Simon Phillips) is tied to a chair while being savagely beaten by other thugs from the gang. The Guvnor is lecturing him about “respect” and it appears that Jack may have been flirting with Natalie, the Guvnor’s daughter. The Guvnor takes a gun, holds it to Jack’s head, and as the picture fades to black for the titles we hear two gunshots.

Jack wakes up in a toilet block next to the Guvnor’s body. Police sirens are approaching so he instinctively flees. He has lost his memory and all he has to go on is his name on a credit card and some other ID and a Polaroid photo of a pair of breasts with the name “Erin” and a Paris address scribbled on the back. He leaves Britain just ahead of the police and goes to Paris to lie low and to track Erin down.

Erin is the sister of one of Jack’s friends in his previous life. They were in love but Jack’s criminal involvements meant he left her to work for the gang and then became involved with the rather psychotic Natalie. Erin is reluctant to get involved with Jack again but at least she shelters him for the night. Her old feelings for him reawaken. She fills in some of the gaps in his previous life and will tell him more the next day when she returns from work.

Filling in time, Jack visits a local night club that evening where he becomes interested in a singer named Girl X. It seems that Jack is a bit of a womaniser and he visits her dressing room in time to see Garvey, the club’s woman owner, leaving the room. Garvey obviously has lesbian designs on Girl X. One of Garvey’s thugs visits her with a ring and teeth belonging to a man Garvey believes she was flirting with in the bar. Jack beats up the thug and Girl X asks him to kill Garvey – it’s the only way out of her predicament since Garvey has some sort of hold over her. Jack doesn’t think he is a killer and refuses.

Back with Erin it appears Jack may be about to make it up with her. He finds that she is also pregnant, apparently to him. He takes the news well but when he gets back to the flat next evening he finds Erin has been stabbed to death. Distraught, he agrees to take on Girl X ‘s offer to kill Garvey. It all goes wrong and Jack is taken by Garvey’s thugs and once again beaten almost senseless. The savage beating revives his dormant memories. He realises he has simply been used throughout his life and now sets out for revenge.

The story is gradually revealed to us through a series of flashbacks as Jack’s memories return. Normally I don’t like flashbacks as they tend to make a story disjointed but here it all works well. The flashbacks keep us up to date with Jack’s returning memories and fill in his character. Meanwhile the suspense is carried on as the story develops.

It is hard to feel sympathy with most of the characters except Erin. They are simply exploiting Jack for their own ends and he, being a follower rather than a leader, has meekly allowed himself to be led deep into trouble. In the end this approach has led to him being betrayed by those few “friends” he had and the one woman who still loves him for himself is dead.

There is not a bad performance in the entire film. The quality acting carries the film, not glitzy tourist shots of Paris. Directors Bob Komar and Simon Phillips have put most of the action indoors and the harsh almost black and white lighting through much of the film sets the mood perfectly. There is one “normal” outside shot where Jack and Erin are returning from a night out but the natural evening lighting seems almost artificial in the context of the film. The film is everything I have come to expect from British drama – good plot, good acting, gritty story and well directed and produced.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.6 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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