Wild Bill (2011)

Missed the first few minutes of this debut film as I was channel surfing the other night. Don't usually like missing the beginnings of a film but for once I stayed put. I wasn't disappointed, on the contrary, it made my night.Performances given by the cast on a whole is praiseworthy, notables are the maturing Will Poulter, good to see, as my recollection of him was as a talented rapscallion in sketches from School of Comedy. Liz White as Roxy, giving a golden heart to a considered flawed character. Charlie Creed-Miles, with the words of Danny King and the director himself, Dexter Fletcher, puts every father in a position, a crossroads. A capturing performance from Charlie that is top notch, even towards the end of the film I was calibrating him towards a young Day-Lewis.Enjoy this film, it's skylines, The Carpenters Arms Estate and the added bonus of seeing a few familiar faces adding to the punch this film packs. Storytelling, Brit style. Love it. Beautiful end credit.Pass that on to Babyface ;-)

A hybrid of social drama and London gangster film, WILD BILL marks the directorial debut of actor and personality Dexter Fletcher. It's the story of the titular character who returns home to care for his two boys and who soon finds himself mixed up with his old criminal friends. The narrative draws towards an explosive climax in which Bill must decide whether friends or family come first.I wasn't too sure about WILD BILL if I'm honest. I appreciate what the film was trying to do, but the whole narrative felt as familiar to me as the usual gangster story. You can't fault Fletcher's assured and confident direction, but the script lets it down; you never really care about what happens to Bill or his slightly obnoxious children.The casting of Charlie Creed-Miles doesn't help; I've always felt that this guy was a poor man's James Nesbit, and I didn't like him from the outset. Lots of familiar faces pop up (like Andy Serkis) but it's the weaselly bad guys who really stand out, particularly the ever-nasty Iwan Rheon (A GAME OF THRONES). WILD BILL boasts an impressively choreographed climax but other than that it's all rather humdrum.

A mixture of urban grit, humor, and emotional turbulence while maintaining a sense of authenticity throughout, director Dexter Fletcher delivers a prominent, charming British drama. Thanks to a deeply heartfelt script--a cast that boasts a wealth of British acting talent (including Charlie Creed-Miles, Will Poulter, Andy Serkis, and Jaime Winstone), "Wild Bill" successfully adds a fresh approach and perspective to the heavily saturated genre of broken families and urban decay. Charlie Creed-Miles gets top billing here as "Wild Bill," the former drug-dealing tough guy who has spent the past 8 years under lock and key. Returning home on parole to find his two sons abandoned by their mother, Bill is blackmailed by his eldest, embittered son Dean into sticking around until the threat of being placed into social services has passed. As Bill begins to bond with his younger son Jimmy (Sammy Williams), local drug dealer "T" (Leo Gregory), digs his claws into both father and son. Fletcher's debut is outstanding, and Charlie Creed-Miles performance as Bill is a knockout. Bill, whose hasty journey to redemption could so easily have seemed abhorrently contrived, yet strangely feels incredibly organic and totally believable. The enjoyment of "Wild Bill" is derived from its incredibly nuanced and engaging performances. Many societal issues are addressed in Wild Bill: neglected children, alcoholism, prostitution, teen pregnancy, drug dealing, and the impact of role models on today's youth (or the lack thereof). Yet the film manages to remain far lighter than its weighty material. Thanks in part to the sharp writing by Fletcher and co-writer Danny King; Wild Bill manages to be funny without sacrificing the emotional power that drives the narrative."Wild Bill" is one of those rare films that possesses energy and vibrancy that manages to keep you rooting for its characters from start to finish. Fletcher's debut will not be an instant hit that propels his name into the spotlight--or recognized by the general public, yet he should be commended for creating a genuinely delightful piece of British social realism laced with charisma and wit. For audiences, "Wild Bill" is a surprisingly entertaining and well-told story that is far more relevant than most would want to believe.

On the one hand, I loved the story. Irresponsible father reconnecting with his family and cleaning up the children's mess. But on the other hand he got busted in the end by law enforcers. Hey, are those law enforcers really so lawless? The law, I would like to hope, tries to be more humane and those who enforce it are put there to compensate its flaws. That what is usually praised in the films. As in 'Derailed', 'The Departed', let alone other innumerable examples. In those films police, when stumbles upon a conflict between the written law and justice, looks into the situation and makes a just choice. In 'Wild Bill' law enforcement is shown as some inhuman, mechanical force, careless of justice. And it cannot be even communicated with. They are just there and act as if they are robots. They represent some higher, inanimate power, or is it just safe for me to think of them as of something inanimate, because if I had believed that they are real alive people, it would destroy my worldview? I think that is why no one of police officers is ever shown in the film. Because no one would ever believe that human beings can act like this. All this reminds me of Dostoevski books, in which the author always puts characters in some totally unrealistic situations that make them to make hard decisions, to choose the less of two evils. Situations like the one Bill was put in. Such stories are very sob-inducing, hence are considered to be powerful stuff by readers and viewers. So that what 'Wild Bill' essentially is. A sob-inducing machine. I do not like that. I feel manipulated and stripped of my time. Although, I liked the acting.