World Premiere / Feature – UK
Showing @ Cameo 1, Fri 17 June @ 22:15 & Mon 20 June @ 17:45
Craig Viveiros / UK / 2011 / 98 min / English
There are some occasions when dropping the soap in the shower isn’t such a bad idea, and others when it really ought to be avoided. Prison of course comes under the latter category, and if you’re in any doubt as to why then Ghosted is a good starting point.
With all the typical caricatures formulaic of a prison drama – the good guy, the bad guy, the young vulnerable guy, the black gang guy, the corrupt officer guy, the bad guy’s bitch guy – there’s very little to surprise here. Random acts of violence are scattered throughout with little if any explanation, no doubt functioning to make the audience tremble at how awful and gritty prison is. There’s a constant anticipation of wondering when the plot’s really going to kick off, and with the film’s snail-paced start, tortoise middle and a walking-paced end, it’s only in the final scenes that a sense of drama and action starts to take hold.
Very little about Ghosted feels believable; writer-director Craig Viveiros’ attempt to have a naturalistic camera wobble is so extreme and distracting that it appears to have been captured by a drunk cameraman. The setting looks like the smallest prison ever to have existed with a social space the size of a matchbox and yet an infinite number of rowdy prisoners getting riled up in the dining room. The acting is stiff, melodramatic and over-rehearsed at best, and Martin Compston’s (Paul) fake crying with the absence of any sign of tears is irritating. Although the premise isn’t all that bad if a little predictable, the script is underdeveloped and neither Jack’s (John Lynch) deteriorating life outside the prison nor his protective impulses towards Paul are exploited enough to evoke real sympathy from the audience. With prison classics like The Shawshank Redemption and A Prophet setting the standard, Ghosted does little to compete, displaying instead a frustrating mediocrity of British cinema.