Honour (2014)

This is a tricky movie to review, it's a little all over the place at times and while occasionally it gets interesting it as often is rather boring.And that has to do partly with the fact that pretty much everyone except for the victim are disgusting human beings and it focuses more on them than it does the only sympathetic character in the movie, and they aren't that fleshed out characters either to make up for it.Paddy Considine is all over the poster but for the first hour he merely shows up here and there and it often made me wonder what his characters purpose even was, he ended up serving a purpose in the end though but yeah he's definitely not a lead character for the first hour that's for sure and clearly only on the poster to attract viewers.I'm conflicted about the movie regarding it's subject, on one hand I do think that it's important to bring up cause honour killings do occur all over the world.It's just the way it was dealt with that didn't sit right with me, cause they simplified it all and it almost felt like it was suggesting that any Muslim can turn into a vicious killer at any moment because of their pride, and other Muslims accept it which is an idea that the right-wing media is already trying to sell to the world causing racism and this movie will surely not help to prevent that from happening.Not saying that you should hide away from subjects just for fear of such things but yeah it made it all seem so simple to what is a very complicated issue, it needed to be handled in a much more delicate manner, and perhaps it would have helped if there were any decent people in it beyond the victim to show that not everyone is like this.

The film addresses the insanity of extremists who are so spiritually void that they believe it is okay to kill a member of their own family if that member wishes to choose their own lover, specifically a lover whom is out of favor with the said extremists. This kind of death-wish upon another is plain nuts and has no place what-so-ever on our planet or in the universe.Anyone who considers honour killing an acceptable way to behave needs re-education in the ways of logic and compassion.Crimes of passion will likely always happen, and happen across a variety of cultures worldwide. But when it happens, the appropriate penalties must be applied. It is a shame that in some counties it is tolerated by local authorities, this is the problem.It is a murderous and sub-human practice. If severe punishment were dispensed to the imbeciles who order these murders, worldwide, then more children will learn the right way.They will learn that love should not be restricted by race or religion.

There are several reasons why I really enjoyed Shan Khan's Honour. First, I really enjoy Paddy Considine. He is a fine actor, as well as director, but here it's really put to the test. He plays a highly unlikable man for most of the feel, though we do see him become someone else through the process. Second, the script is really fantastic; it's edgy, raw, there is grit to the themes within. Essentially, the story is about a young British Muslim girl who is targeted for honour killing after her brothers discover she plans to run off with a young Punjabi man. After their attempts to reel her in slowly come to a drastic and failed end, the family, along with the mother, hire a bounty hunter in London to track her down, and it just so happens he is a racist; though for a racist, he certainly knows the culture, even their language, well.In a day and age where there is a lot of conflict over extremists and fundamentalists in various religions around the world, I can imagine it was tough to make a film about Muslims and honour killing. The film is a tough one. At times it is brutal, violent, messy. Other times it comes across as a great crime thriller. The script is tense. The story is told on film in a non-linear fashion, giving us a look at what led to the family's decision to kill the daughter. I think Khan did a great job with the script, and it translated well to screen.The acting came top notch here. I was very impressed with Aiysha Hart who played Mona, the young girl on the run from her own family, as well as Faraz Ayub and Shubham Saraf who played her brothers. Considine was absolutely incredible though, and it's his performance which truly shines above all else. The look and feel of the film was gritty, something I always enjoy. How everything looked, dark and sort of grim, really fit the subject matter and the tone of the film.All in all I have to give the film a 9 out of 10. Everything worked together to create a really wonderful film.I think the message here is presented through Considine's character. In the beginning, he is truly racist; he hates Muslims, any person of colour. Even though he deals with Muslims, he seems to have a disdain for them. He has white supremacist ink on his body, including an Aryan tattoo, which he later tries to singe off. By the end, after he has come to see the inner workings of the extremist Muslim circles and he sees his own behaviour mirrored in their fundamentalist, violent beliefs. Through others and their hatred, the character understands his own, or better yet he comes to reject it, understanding it is only hate, it is nothing but thoughts and misconceptions and foolish notions. This is a must-see film. I highly recommend it. I don't give it a full 10 stars, only because I felt there was something missing. Perhaps a little more of the past behind Considine's character, though we get bits and pieces, would have made it a perfect film. Though it's still an incredible movie. It inspires hope, that people who hate can turn around, somehow, some way.

Honour starts off interesting enough; a young woman Mona (Aiysha Hart) is living at home with her mother and 2 brothers Kasim (Faraz Ayub) and Adel (Shubham Saraf). Mona lives with her strict and devout Muslim mother (Harvey Virdi), who resents Mona for not following her lead - she refuses to speak her native tongue, she also refuses to wear a headscarf etc. Things become worse for Mona when she meets and falls in love with Tanvir (Nikesh Patel). Her family refuse to accept the fact that she intends to marry this man due to the fact that Tanvir isn't one of their own. However, Mona refuses to listen to her family and consequently goes on the run. Mona's mother hires Bounty Hunter (Paddy Considine)to find her daughter and bring her back home.I think the main reason I was disappointed with this is that it just wasn't what I was expecting (unfortunately not in a good way). I expected an edge of your seat 'cat and mouse' chase involving The Bounty Hunter and Mona, but what I actually got was a boring film that took a very long time to not really go anywhere. I thought that the pace would pick up once Considine's character was introduced, but as soon as he started saying 'This is one last job' and 'My heart's not in this anymore' or words to that effect that it would be predictable that he would decide to help Mona. Whilst it was nice to see Considine helping her out, it meant that the film ended up lacking any tension and the film was less enjoyable as a result.The film was shot out of sequence where the end of the film is shown at the beginning. I didn't mind the fact that the film was shot out of sequence because the film wasn't difficult to follow, but I personally just found it to be far too repetitive and found that it never really got going. None of the characters had much depth to them which didn't help as I found myself not caring for any of the characters on screen. The chemistry between Mona and Tanvir was quite poor and I wasn't convinced by their romance whatsoever.There were other minor things that annoyed me such as Mona's mother giving Mona a hard time for speaking in English rather than her mother's native tongue, but then a bit later in the film Mona's mother starts talking in English. That just didn't make much sense to me. The whole murder scene involving Mona was a bit stupid as well - they strangle her and assume her to be dead, they then carry her body to the woods in a box. However, when Adel opens the box, Mona lashes out at him and makes good her escape. It is obvious that she was playing dead, but I found it hard to believe that nobody thought to check her pulse before they put her in the box. I'll admit that her escape came as a bit of a surprise, but I was still a little bit disappointed due to how contrived it felt.Considine is likely to be the only recognisable face in this film for most people and he does an OK job here (although I personally feel that this is far from his best work). Everyone else was OK, but there weren't any standout performances.Honour had the potential to be a great film; the premise was good, but I found the film to be far too repetitive and boring for the most part. Even when Considine was introduced, the film still didn't really go anywhere - he finds her far too easily and then decides to help her. This to me doesn't make for a particularly 'thrilling' film. Again this twist was nice, but it made the film a lot less exciting and a lot less tense than it could have been.The only positives from this film come in the last 10-15 minutes. In these final few minutes, the film had a bit of tension and energy which was severely lacking in the rest of the film. I also like the message behind the film and it will no doubt help to open people's eyes to the appalling treatment which still occurs to some Muslim women. It's just a shame that for the most part that Honour was so boring.