Would you like to be really depressed for eighty five minutes? London to Brighton will accomplish that and more. Set in the underbelly of London's seedy crime world, this is the story of eleven year old runaway Joanne, who, at the start is coerced into prostitution by her companion, Kelly. Her first client is an old mobster who ends up dead before deflowering the young girl. This sets off a chain of events, with the dead man's son, Derek looking for his father's killer.Everyone in the film is constantly drinking , smoking, and behaving badly in general. The working class criminals speak with Cockney accents, which grew tiresome to this American's ears after a while. The actors are convincing, as if they were recruited from prison. Georgia Groome is outstanding as Joanne, the troubled young girl at the center of the movie. Gritty and sad, London to Brighton will not brighten up your day.

There aren't many films of this genre (the late night TV film/filmfour film) which will grip you like this film does. I think, literally, I spent about half an hour in the doorway to the lounge, trying to leave the room in order to make a drink... but my eyes were fixed to the screen, and my feet fixed to the floor.I think this film speaks to you in a way you can't describe, you are along for the ride and you have bought 100% into the characters (save one 'baddy') - the director/cast/et al managed to produce something greater than the sum of it's parts. The film is fantastic and yet some of the parts really shouldn't add up to something so good.Excellent for what it is. Those who like to go on an emotional journey, a journey with the characters, an unpleasant and sometimes pillow-gripping journey, but a rewarding one none-the-less.

I was really looking forward to seeing this, and for the first hour or so I wasn't disappointed - good story, good acting, good use of flashbacks - but then... For me, this film seemed to paint itself into a corner as it got towards the end. Once we got to the scene in the field, at the end, we knew that he wasn't going to shoot Joanne, because of the heart-to-heart they'd had in the car. We also suspected that he wasn't going to shoot Kelly, if only because she'd been so sympathetically portrayed throughout. So we assume that he's going to shoot the pimp (because he'd been portrayed as thoroughly unsympathetic throughout). Which he does. Ho hum. At this point I was thinking "please don't cut to a shot of the girls on the train to Devon". Which he did. I really wanted to like this film, and I did at first, but then the story didn't seem to know what to do with itself, and couldn't find an ending to live up to its beginnings. To be fair, neither could I.

This is a very raw, rough first feature (BAFTRA nominated) by Paul Andrew Williams.He wrote & produced the film as well.The film runs a very fast 85 minutes including 4 minutes of credits. It is a low budget film about some very unlikeable people, the sort nearly all of us would not bother with or would want know. They all are brutal & foul mouthed.However we do care, to some degree for them.The cast are mostly newcomers or featured players from TV) I never heard of any of them). I definitely want to see them in other films. Lorraine Stanley plays a working street girl. Georgia Groome (all of 14 when film was made) is new to the streets.Johnny Downs is the evil pimp, & Sam Spruell as the sadistic son of a client. They & the others in cast do fine jobs as these unsavory person.Normally I stay far from this type of film,BUT this time I was mesmerized, The hand held camera work was not as annoying as it usually is & most of my readers know I eschew foul language. Here it comes across as natural. It is like a Tarantino movie without the humour. That part I liked.Being a minor,low budget,no name cast feature from the UK It only had a short few theatre run in the USA.in Feb 2008.Look for this on Cable or rent it,I am sure you will agree it is watchable.There are some plot holes, but film moves fast & they are easily ignored.Ratings: ***1/2 (out of 4) 91 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)