St George’s Day: Five days, three cities, one diamond deal

The line, “No one likes us we don’t care,” said in unison by characters Micky Mannock (Frank Harper) and Ray Collishaw (Craig Fairbrass), serves as a fitting way to describe Harper’s latest Crime Thriller, St George’s Day. Mannock and Collishaw are two cockney cousins, both close to retirement but far from peaking, pitilessly shoot man after man in order to pursue their prime objectives: power and money.

Set in various locations along the Thames in what they patriotically describe as ‘the greatest city in the world,’ these ruthless criminals, backed by a squad of virile devotees, plot, steal and kill to satisfy their greedy pleasures. It is only when their shipment of the Russian Mafia’s cocaine is lost at sea that the pair find themselves in extremely rocky territory. Forced to flee from London, across Amsterdam and Berlin, Mannock and Collishaw hatch a precarious plan to get the money back and put their pasts behind them. Unfortunately, a grass among their ‘trusty’ gang threatens to bring it all crashing down. Chased in a Les Miserables-esque fashion by solo man, Jamie Foreman, whose detective work has become personal, this pair of East End gangsters seem fated to fail at every hurdle.

The film is absorbing and at times the performances are very impressive, particularly by Luke Treadaway and Vincent Regan. London is transformed into a gangster’s paradise amidst the lights of Canary Wharf and the Houses of Parliament. The absence of London bustle is at times a little unbelievable, and the lack of precautions taken to remain undercover is also quite improbable. However, there is some humour, if a little dry, and there is certainly action.

James Bond meets EastEnders, where seedy older men are dating beautiful young girls, and guns and diamonds appear from nowhere. Sentences are rarely completed without the profanity, which is distracting, but it was engaging at times and intelligently written. It is a deliberate crime thriller, rather than a drama with any mystery, and nothing particularly extraordinary.

Claire Mitchell

St George’s Day is released nationwide on 7^th September 2012.

Watch the trailer for St George’s Day here: