Culturebox: Brighton Rock

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movies Brighton Rock A new adaptation of Graham Greene's masterpiece. By Dana Stevens Posted Friday, Aug. 26, 2011, at 10:55 AM ET The old saw that great novels never make great movies has some pretty robust evidence on its side. But Brighton Rock, Graham Greene's compact masterpiece of a gangland thriller, at least gives rise to consistently decent ones. The 1947 John Boulting version is a satisfyingly well-crafted movie-movie, with a script co-authored by Greene, gritty location shooting, and Richard Attenborough's chilling performance as the psychopathic gangster Pinkie Brown. Now, Rowan Joffe (the son of The Mission's Roland Joffe, making his writing and directing debut) has remade Greene's novel in a streamlined modern version, with a little more explicit violence thrown in--and, unfortunately, a few of the best character and story details left out. This Brighton Rock (IFC Films) doesn't live up to the greatness of the novel (or even, really, the very-goodness of the 1947 movie), but it doesn't betray Greene's book either, which may be all a reasonable reader and filmgoer could ask. One place the movie excels is in invoking the novel's bleak, foreboding atmosphere: the shabby boardwalk attractions and drab boardinghouse bedrooms of an economically depressed resort town on the English coast. Joffe has updated the setting to the early 1960s, with the youth riots of that time providing historical color and a vaguely thematized aura of social breakdown. To continue reading, click here. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. E-mail her at slatemovies@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate How the New Web Address System Will Confuse Users and Hurt Business There Are Four New TV Shows About Identical Twins Don't Believe Hollywood: Chimps Will Never Have the Brain Power of Humans	Advertisement
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