Tyrannosaur marks the uncompromising, gut-wrenching directorial debut of Paddy Considine. Watching this emotionally-charged film of damaged people is like been unable to turn away from a car crash. This is a stark reminder, too, of Samantha Morton’s The Unloved (2010) which screened at last year’s Festival and was another directorial debut similar in tone.
The fearsome Peter Mullan plays Joseph, a psychologically wounded individual with a profound resentment festering inside him. He’s like a weeping wound, projecting his rage upon the nearest available target. After an alcohol-fuelled rant with a local at the pub he kicks his beloved dog to death. Later, after copping a hiding from some kids hd’s previously struck out at, he stumbles into the thrift shop of Hannah (Olivia Colman).
A devout Christian, she offers him consolation in prayer; he’s momentarily touched but then vents his rage at her hypocrisy. Remorseful, he returns the next day, on a subliminal level seeking a human connection. We’re shown horrifying glimpses of Hannah’s own story through her poisoned marriage to the monstrous James (Eddie Marsan) glimpses as frightening as they are repellent. Joseph and Hannah find another through the pain inflicted upon them by the world; a tentative friendship forms, one that scares both for differing reasons.
The two leads are nothing short of remarkable, carrying this punishing film along on a tide of bleakness that’s rarely released. The always intense Mullan is a formidable force, able to project seething rage with the blink of an eye. But the work of Colman as a woman attempting to rationalise the infected remnants of her marriage, whilst retaining her sanity under this black cloud of evil is just as remarkable.
Considine takes no prisoners with his remarkable screenplay for Tyrannosaur (2011). And yet, a flicker of humanity the last opportunity for soldering these two broken lives together flickers at the edges, offering hope from a tainted, unlikely source.
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