Star Rating:

Cleanskin

Director: Hadi Hajaig

Actors: Ahbin Galeya, Peter Polycarpou

Release Date: Monday 30th November -0001

Genre(s): Thriller

Running time: 108 minutes

Writer-director Hadi Hajaig likes to think Cleanskin is an exploration of the advocation of violence. He finds reasons for people to die but can't find reasons for a knife in the eye, broken arms and people being set on fire. Someone gets shot in the head mid-jump. A woman is beaten up and then stabbed with a kitchen knife. Maybe the point is the gratuitous of it all but the point gets lost along the way.

When a London restaurant explodes, tough secret agent Sean Bean is given carte blanche by Charlotte Rampling's clandestine organisation to hunt down the terrorist cell responsible. One of those involved is former law school student Ash (Galeya), a 'cleanskin' - he's unknown to the authorities - who is preparing his suicide bombing under the guidance of cell leader Nabil (Polycarpou)…

Bean is in the same territory as his disgruntled soldier from Outlaw but where he was on the run there, here he is legit. There isn't that much of a difference between the two characters, though, except for a government cheque. He's Dirty Harry, if Harry was struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife and baby girl which drives him to blind hate, something Hajaig touches on but doesn't give enough weight to. Hajaig concentrates more on Ash's struggle with his 'destiny': he has just reunited with his college girlfriend, who is English, and is starting to question Nabil's declaration that everyone in England is responsible for their government's actions, namely the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cleanskin wants to show that there is hatred driving both sides but shines a brighter light on Ash and renders his argument unintentionally lopsided.

Cleanskin is assembled in a haphazard fashion; Hajaig would flashback to a love scene from six years before and from there build up Ash's motivation before getting back to Bean stomping about London. Oddly, it is these flashbacks that is the most interesting aspect about the film, but they are plonked down and jammed in without rhyme or reason.

A hatred simmers throughout the strangely engaging Cleanskin, which keeps it bubbling when its sometimes clumsy direction, questionable acting and worse dialogue is encountered.