Review: THE VETERAN - Grimy, British Kitchen-Sink Episode of 24

rating: 2

What with popping up in films like The Sorcerer€™s Apprentice and Prince of Persia, plus the fact that he€™s soon to be seen in War Horse and the Clash Of The Titans sequel, it€™s safe to assume that the always watchable Toby Kebbell didn€™t need to act in The Veteran for the pay cheque. Nor, to be fair, did he need to spend six weeks of last summer in a shitty part of London filming it, so respect for that must go to him and for his support for low-budget British film. However, having seen The Veteran, directed by Matthew Hope, I kind of wish he€™d opted to spend six weeks on the beach instead having a rest. The film sees Kebbell€™s soldier, Miller, return to the rough South London council estate he calls €˜home€™ after a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Suffering from some kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome, he finds it hard to settle back in to a life away from combat, falls foul of the local drug dealing hoodies, and is recruited by shady suits from the intelligence department to assist with an anti-terrorism operation. What follows is kind of a grimy, British kitchen-sink episode of €˜24€™ with a big slice of €˜Harry Brown€™ that almost works, but fails by virtue of the fact that both plot strands don€™t amount to a satisfying whole, leaving you feeling like it doesn€™t quite know what it wants to be. Ultimately a decision needed to me made at script stage whether they wanted Miller to be a Harry Brown and tackle the Sun Tzu quoting drug dealer who rules the roost on his council estate, or tackle terrorists as a budget James Bond. At the moment they€™ve tried to have their cake and eat it by doing both which has resulted in very muddied waters indeed. Honestly, it€™s a real shame because there was a moment in the middle where I sat up in my seat and actually thought they were going to pull off something I hadn€™t seen before: a gripping low-budget British Action/Thriller with the emphasis being on the ACTION. One very slick fight scene in particular sums up this potential- Miller, on the trail of a possible rogue agent, finds himself being held captive in a people carrier by four Kosovan heavies. What at first appears to be a very sticky situation is dealt with such ass-kicking aplomb that even the great Jack Bauer would have to tip his hat. One major thing that doesn€™t ring true is that so much effort is made by the terrorists to smuggle in guns to Britain to carry out their planned atrocity, yet the local hoodies possess enough fire-power (including a couple of Uzi€™s) to take on an army. Quite peculiar then that a group a well financed terrorists have to rely on Kosovan smugglers for their weapons, whereas a group of kids have no problem at all in tooling up- Perhaps the terrorists should just have popped down to the local estate and bartered with a 14yr old hoodie and got on with it? The other gripe I came out with is that unfortunately as good as Kebbell is in the titular role, the other actors aren€™t up to his high standard- it€™s almost like the producers blew the cast budget on him and Brian Cox and had to bring in a load of Drama students to play the other parts. There€™s a little bit of politicising too, which by the time the third character tells us that the war in Afghanistan is wrong, it grates a little and comes over as a tad bit preachy. Overall, the ambition of the film-makers to attempt such a plot with limited funds cannot be faulted yet, whilst some of the excellent action sequences wouldn€™t be out of place in an episode of €˜24€™, the film, like it€™s main protagonist, lacks clear direction. The Veteran is released in the U.K. today.