Baffling. Baffling how this film got made, baffling what the director thought he was trying to say, baffling how this script was ever considered adequate and baffling that Fassbender and Gleeson saw fit to have anything to do with this utter turkey. The main problem is that there isn't anything even approaching a sympathetic character - they are all loathsome and this it is impossible to enjoy a single moment of anything that occurs. A total waste of time and effort.

In this seductive British drama Michael Fassbender plays a young father and member of a Traveller family caught in a very tricky situation. The language is rich with slang ('gorgies' are people who live in houses), and you realize this is a movie made by someone knowing the territory. Their accents may not be perfect but the duel between father and son, with violence just underneath the surface, is extremely convincing. There are serious themes at play: family conflict and the inheritance as well as rejection of values. The film also delivers fun with details like hiding from a police helicopter under a cow or joyriding in tiny cars through estates both council and gentry. It's a teasing celebration of outsiderdom without being an endorsement.

What the hell Michael Fassbender was doing within a million miles of this tripe is beyond me. It's what's wrong with society today, all wrapped up in one giant farce. The script drunkenly meanders through, what seems to be a glorification of sub-human and skewed morality. The father of a dysfunctional, illiterate brood, who's own father is, what can only be described as, a brainless, uneducated, patriarchal moron. The traveling community already have a bad name, without this movie making it worse. I just don't understand the point of this movie, or what it's message is. Fassbender is a worthless crook, his father even worse; an illiterate waste of space. He swears at his kids and encourages them to do the same and has the parenting skills of a halfwit. He charges around the countryside stealing and joyriding, whilst pursued by an inept police force. There is no more depth to this movie - it's not the sort of movie anyone should be making these days - society is bad enough. Anyone who can find a deeper meaning than that is delusional, or a massive (delusional) Michael Fassbender fan. If the message is about 'family', well we can do without families like their's. They should be drowned at birth. I rarely get all bent out of shape about, what is essentially just a movie but the message this gives is the wrong one. I still cannot believe Fassbender even considered this, in a career which has been on the up for some time now. There is nothing wrong with the acting, but how hard is it to portray a moron? They were All morons - even the police. I'm not sure who will find this movie's 'message' appealing, but the lack of structure in the script just leaves you wondering what the hell the movie is actually about. I kept thinking surely the movie would take some direction, other than the one we could have guessed from minute one, but no, sadly not. I've had to task my brain more whilst stirring soup. Worth a watch if you have no expectations and your colouring book is full.

It's hard not to like a movie with the terrific actors Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson in it, and you can add a superb performance from Lyndsey Marshal here, as well. However, this film about a traveling band of criminals, in Northern England, is so full of characters who are so devoid of conscience and border on being despicable, that it prevented me from having any empathy for any of them (except the kids who are trapped in their circumstances).As other reviewers have mentioned, the accents are so thick that I had to rely on subtitles, and even then there are so many slang expressions used that it was hard to totally grasp the dialog. Also, a strong warning that there are 2 dogs murdered in the movie, one being a police dog. There's extremely raw and explicit language throughout the film as well.Overall, the acting is most solid and there are some original and interesting concepts here, but the anarchic theme and completely anti- social characters prevented me from really caring about what happened to any of them.