London to Brighton - Aspects of crime

'London to Brighton', directed by Paul Andrew Williams (2006) is another British crime film about a powerful mobster Stuart who assigns his son Duncan's workers to find a young girl on the street to be his escort. The young girl, Joanne, agrees to do the job for £100, and Kelly (another prostitute) befriends her. When Joanne panics in the situation, she flees to Brighton with Kelly and seeks refuge at Kelly's friends house. They're on the run and trying to raise enough money to get Joanne home, little do they know, Duncan's workers are on their tail.

Narrative methods
The narrative fillows a non linear format as it starts with present day, then flashes back to previous events which has led to what is happening now. There are always questions building up, but they get answered with the clever use of flashbacks to explain what the girls are running from. We first see Kelly and Joanne bursting into a grotty run down toilet; Kelly has a black eye and they both appear to be panicking. They are saying how they need to run away to Brighton which makes us think something serious and bad has happened that they are running from. Then there are flashbacks to when Kelly and joanne met; this goes on to explain why they were in that state in the opening scene.

Representation of poverty
Poverty is what fuels this story, and is essentially what links everything together. Joanne is homeless and begging on the streets near a train station, until Kelly finds her and takes her under her wing. She gives her food and helps her raise money when she runs from Stuart. It is him that wants Joanne for his sick sexual desires; this leads to devestating consequences in the end. Also near the beginning of the film, Derek orders his girlfriend to have sex with a gang of his friends to get them money to make a life together. This is also why Derek asks Kelly to get him a young girl for Stuart. He does it for the money to get a new life away from this trade.

Representation of family relationships
Joanne makes the audience aware of her family situation by revealing that her mother is dead, and her father beats her - this being her reason for living on the streets. Joanne is, in a way, representing all the children in society who run away from home because of abuse; she even says at one point that living on the streets is better than living at home. This suggests she feels pure hate towards her father.

Representation of class
There seem to be a variety of classes portrayed in this film; on one hand theres characters like Kelly and Derek, who come across as lower class people trying to make money in any way they can. Kelly is a prostitute and throughout the film uses this to get her money whenever she needs it - in one part of the film she offers to have sex with a stranger without a condom. This suggests she doesn't care for her own health or safety. And then theres Derek who is a pimp, and also a skivvy for the powerful mobster Duncan, son of Stuart. Then on the other hand we have the likes of Stuart and his son Duncan who appear to have a lot of power and authority. They are upper class and quite wealthy; they wear smart suits which connote wealth, high status and power, and we also see them in strip clubs accompanied by henchmen. They represent the high class gang culture. Joanne's class, however, is somewhat mysterious as we never see her home or family. From the brief glimpse of her grandmothers house at the end, I would say she is probably middle class.

Representation of violence
Violence is the driving force of this film. It always seems that violence is dealt with with even more violence. The beginning of the film shows how Kelly have a swollen face and a black eye - after she is punched by Stuart. Then the end of the film shows Derek and Chum both getting shot. It starts and ends with violent reflections.

Representation of crime
12-year-old Joanne admits to stabbing Stuart, and as payback he has Chum and Derek shot dead - which Stuart makes Joanne pull the trigger for. I think he felt awful for finding his father dead, so he wanted to get back at Joanne by making her feel as bad as he did - she clearly didn't want to kill Derek and Chum so it was the perfect revenge. I though the killing of Derek and Chum was unexpected (I thought he was capable of, and going to shoot, Joanne), but this could have been part of Duncan's plan - someone had to pay for what happened. At the beginning, before we find out Joanne has killed Stuart, she asks Kelly if they're going to jail; this suggests straight away that they have done something bad.

Representation of opportunity and education
The characters seem to lack opportunity; they appear to almost be stuck in a vicious circle. For example; Kelly is a prostitute and uses this to earn her money to be able to live. She clearly doesn't like this way of life and I would think she'd much rather have a normal job, but I imagine she had a lack of education and therefore wouldn't have the qualifications to get a normal job. Meaning the only way to make her money is by doing the dodgy jobs for Derek and selling her body. As for Joanne, she is 12 and smokes, has run away from home, and claims she is not a virgin. I don't ever remember hearing her talk about school or any form of education which suggests to me that she isn't well educated, and would therefore have less opportunities when she's older.

Representation of location
The immediate setting of the film is a dirty, grotty run down bathroom in which Kelly and Joanne burst into. There is an effective tracking shot near the beginning of an alleyway in London; there are people drinking alcohol in the subways and it is a filthy area. When Kelly finds Joanne she is sitting on a dirty floor in the train station in London collecting money in a filthy old cup she's found. Her clothes are dirty and she looks like she hasn't eaten. Kelly admits she used to live on the streets too - we find out about her background and can see why she has turned out the way she has. When they run to Brighton they go to Kelly's friends house. It is full of smoke and everyone is doing drugs.

At times I found this film really uncomfortable to watch, but overall I think it was pretty good.