ScreenWize

Strap yourself in for a jaw-dropping performance from Tom Hardy as he completely inhabits the role of Britain’s most notorious prisoner in this highly stylised piece of mischievous cinematic vaudeville.

Aged 19, Michael Peterson robbed a post office in 1974 and has spent most of the 34 years since behind bars. Changing his name to Charles Bronson as part of his need to be famous, the uber-prisoner from the UK has been transformed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn into a rakish and gleeful psychopath – both theatrically charming and inexplicably violent.

Accompanied by music from Puccini to the Pet Shop Boys, Winding Refn redefines the biopic by taking the camera - and the viewer - on a scorchingly extravagant journey through the alter-ego.

SW

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Filed Under: Reviews by Simon