Had me screaming at the TV by the end - the story swirls deeper and deeper down and pulls everything with it. A real snowball! Part of the film's grasp on me was its realism, very well done. There is an awkward tension between Frank and Lynette, especially when they first meet, and it is interesting to watch their relationship develop as they gradually loosen up around each other. Marsden's performance as Frank is fierce and brutal, sometimes a bit gross - he really gave it his all. The story seems to thicken quite naturally and film is very good at making the viewer empathetic to its heavy story lines. The story is bleak but sincere.

Junkhearts is a gritty film set in London that starts promisingly but gets derailed due to poor execution and a muddled and derivative screenplay.Frank (Eddie Marsan) is a reclusive ex-soldier, drunk and suffering from post traumatic stress as he is haunted by his past. He takes in a young homeless girl Lynette (Candese Reid) when she is having a spot of bother outside an off licence and she stays at his shabby flat.At first they strike up a tentative friendship but then her boyfriend Danny turns up and also moves into the flat before long there is sex, drugs, alcohol and partying and Frank is like a prisoner in his own flat and it looks like Lynette has used him.I just wanted Frank to knock Danny's lights out but what we get is a dreary melodrama which stems into a cliché ridden thinly plotted mess.

Eddie Mardsen and Tom Sturridge are great as you would expect Sturridge acts against type and is really sinister with a sense of menace and suppressed violence Candice Reid is a brilliant new actress in my view- great to see a newbie given such a key part and really pulling it off. She hold the film together and you care about her fate and fear for her on the streets of East London The central characters are convincing and hold your attention throughout The place is Brick Lane and this part of London is really another character in the film If you know the place it enhances your enjoyment of the film Didn't really see enough character development in the Romola Garai role for that bit of the film to work for me But overall this films will hold your attention and make you care about the people-esp Candice Reid

I've just seen Junkhearts at Chapter Arts centre in Cardiff. I saw Junkhearts solely because I'm a big fan of Eddie Marsan and wanted to see him in a lead role, as I think he's a fantastic actor with a great range and a lightness of touch. As expected Eddie Marsan was fantastic, here playing an ex-solider, and brought a freshness to quite a now archetypal character. Familiar as this archetype is, the character is normally played out in a flat depressed state that flies off the handle at a moments notice. Instead the director Tinge Krishnan chooses to create a distance between the character of Frank and everybody else, in terms of the acting, the cropped framing, the use of negative space, and specific points of focus, which works really effectively. Within Junkhearts we are also introduced to newcomer Candese Reid, who was found at Nottingham's Television Workshop – famous for Paddy Considine and the This Is England cast. Her character Lynette works her way under Frank's emotional barrier, fully realised in a spine-tingling scene where Frank cracks his first smile we've seen, bathed in gorgeous sun light. The performances of Frank and Lynette felt truthful and authentic and I felt sympathetic to each character and that's a testament to the director. Furthermore, the execution of the script really engaged me throughout. It was incredibly shot by Catherine Derry, I loved the self-defence/dance scene seeped in sunflare, the lovely bokeh in the bar scene with Shaun Dooley and Romola Garai, the bleak scenes in and around the tower block and lifts, the uncomfortable framing with Eddie when he's having flashbacks, the lovely slow-motion when he dances, and I loved the practical lighting, and the strip lighting inside the flat. If you like the work of Lynne Ramsay, Andrea Arnold, Mike Leigh, and Shane Meadows, Junkhearts could be right up your street. One to watch in 2012.