Awaydays

'Ave iiiiiiittttt'. Based on the best selling novel by Kevin Sampson, Awaydays is the latest football hooligan movie to grace the screen after I.D, The Football Factory, Green Street, Cass, and more. Set in northwest England in 1979, the plot follows Paul Carty (Bell) as he falls in with a crowd of young football hooligans called The Pack, organised by the older John (Graham). Within this crowd is the tormented soul of Elvis (Boyle), an Ian Curtis knock-off who wants away from the day-to-day drudgery of unemployment and terrace violence. The cynical Elvis takes the naive Carty under his wing, but as his mentor disappears into a world of drugs and depression, Carty finds himself amongst the kicks, punches and Stanley knives.

Whereas The Football Factory and Green Street revelled in the violence, Awaydays sticks close to Cass and I.D, in that it's more about the people than the punching. It's a brave angle but, like Cass, it's also its downfall - an audience paying money to watch a film about football hooliganism will want to see some football hooliganism. The lack of rucks would be okay if the characters on show were interesting enough to keep the movie going during its quieter moments.

They're not, however. Uninteresting, unbelievable and unoriginal characters are rife. There is no one here who hasn't done or said something that was already explored in other hooligan movies. Unable to make its mind up as to whose story Awaydays is, Kevin Sampson's script flips back and forth between Carty and Elvis. Carty is barely written, a character that's usually relegated to a bit part, a sidekick to the 'hero' in other hooligan movies. He doesn't say or do anything of note. Elvis is written as hard-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside top boy, but since we never see him in a fight, it's tough to believe that (a) he would want to be a hooligan, (b) the poetry lover would be allowed in The Pack and (c) why The Pack doesn't beat the foppish fringe off his head every time they see him. Graham is totally wasted in a role that lacks the threat of his similar outing in This Is England.

The performances by debutants Bell and Boyle leave a lot to be desired too, but then they have to deal with characters that change motives from scene to scene and are forced to say and do things totally out of character and, most of the time, for no reason. This is typical of the entire movie - there's no consistency, no grand plan to the proceedings. The dialogue the actors are given is poor too, not Nick Love poor - which has at least an energy and rawness in its punchy lines - just poor. Hopefully Nick Love's The Firm will fare better when released next year. Where Awaydays lacks crackle and energy, its soundtrack of Echo and The Bunnymen, (early) Ultravox, The Cure and Joy Division spits forth the vigour and hate that should have went onto the script pages.