Tower Block

Tower Block DVD (Lionsgate)

A tower block, destined for demolition. A few families left living at the top floor. Apatehtic, indifferent, trapped by the circumstances and poverty, they are a mix of decent people who cannot escape the sad reality and the dregs of the society. A grey urban location and people who seem to have lost all hope. It looks like a gritty and claustrophobic British drama that exposes the evils of the urban neglect. A young boy has been brutally kicked to death by two hooded figures, and nobody came out to help him except the main protagonist, young woman called Becky (Sheridan Smith) but as she has been beaten senseless herself, the murder happens while the others are hiding behind the locked doors. Fearing retribution, nobody wants to come forward with any information when the police go around the block asking questions. Even Becky is too scared to be a witness.
A few months later, she has a coffee with her one-night stand, and it appears to be a beginning of a new awkward romance when all hell breaks loose. A mystery sniper starts to pick off the tenants, one by one, sparing noone, even killing children. A few suvivors escape into the hall and try to figure out what is going on and how they are going to outwit the sniper.

The tenants have to put their differences aside and come up with a plan on how to escape the building.
Guilt-ridden Becky becomes a mastermind behind the escape plan, she bravely tries all the possible options and inspires the others to follow her lead. After a rather slow start, the action hardly stop to have a breather. And though you expect some new deaths along the way, you are still shocked by the unfairnesss of it all and are really hoping that they would manage to escape. All the twists and turns of the plot keep you on tenterhooks.

Sheridan Smith as Becky is a tough cookie with a gentle soul, who is joined by Russell Tovey, an alcoholic loner, and Jack O'Connell, a thug that you hate to start with and begin to admire by the end of the film (he also comes up with some of the best one-liners in the film).

This film is co-directed by James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson.

There were a few inconsistencies in the plot (i.e. regarding the plans of ecsape) but I won't be discussing them as that would reveal the plot. And I would certainly recommend watching this film, as it is truly a nail-biting thriller.

Tower Block is released on DVD & Blu-Ray across the UK on 18 February 2013.