The Man Inside

A remarkably heavy-handed drama that lacks any sort of impact, The Man Inside tries too hard to be "powerful" and forgets to be in any way realistic. If I had to sum it up in one scene? Well, someone actually falls to their knees in a church and screams "Why, God, why." It's too silly on too many levels. Think a low-budget horror movie without the horror, masquerading as a gritty urban drama.

Ashley Thomas is a quiet, intense sort with some serious anger issues. Said anger issues come from watching his (pantomime villain) father generally be a complete bastard and murder people. He really enjoys being horrible. I mean REALLY. If this were a different kind of film he's be wearing a dress and asking a mirror how great he was. Thomas' ponderous Clayton essentially looks out for his family by not saying or doing very much - just not killing them all in a violent rage. It's the aforementioned anger issues y'see; we know this because every time someone hugs him he visualises using their head as a stress ball. Boxing appears to help - even though he doesn’t really seem to be training for anything in particular - but having his younger brother involved in a feud with a sociopathic little Dexter (who also happens to be a mates sibling) pushes his rage issues to the brink.

There comes in a point in every bad film when you kind of lower your expectations past a certain level and are surprised by a genuine moment - The Man Inside does not have one of those moments. It gets progressively worse as it moves along and the tone is so heightened at points you actually feel bad for the cast. Thomas was obviously told to push the brooding; but pretty much everyone around him is giving a performance to the back of the room.

It's a shame, because there was potential in this story. There had to be a reason why the likes of (the rarely less than superb) Peter Mullan was attracted it it. Maybe the script was better on the page and something was completely lost in the editing suite; either way it doesn't work and is borderline embarrassing at points.

Pseudo combat movie you're looking for? Warrior. Gritty urban drama? Check Adulthood or the recent Plan B helmed Ill Manors. Avoid.