perhaps because no american director today could conceivably do anything so lean and mean a paul andrew williams 2006 feature and u critic have be quite insensitive to what in 2006 a guardian critic call the british film of the year . i guess we just do not get it . most american review say this be technically skillful and but . and then dismiss williams london to brighton a repugnant and morally questionable and it end soft . but at the end of the day and pic have a so what feel fine technique in the service of something rather unsavory and write variety usually perceptive derek elley . ugly material and yes while but in the service of ithow so . in fact and the gangster son of his pedophile father commit an act of kindness and in his way and in those final scene and which be full of horror and terror . even grant this general dismissal of the value of an admittedly accomplished debut and the u online website metacritic estimate rating of american review of london to brighton and 56 and be another erroneous stateside assessment . english review be understandably glow . american one be niggardly and but not that much . the film explode into action from the first frame with kelly ( lorraine stanley ) and joanne ( georgia groome ) bursting into a lady room where kelly hide joanne in a toilet . theyre a thirty something whore with bruise and an inflamed black eye and a frightened runaway not yet twelve with melt makeup whom kelly find at waterloo station for her spineless pimp derek ( johnny harris ) and to please a pedophile gangster name duncan allen ( alexander morton ) . the man come to grief and his cold eye son stuart ( sam spruell ) come to exact revenge while but we find this out later . all we know be these hapless female be in danger and have to get out of london . kelly leave joanne in the toilet while she score trick to raise money for train ticket to brighton . on the trip the pair be pitifully delight to be in the country ( a bit of color ) and and kelly run down to the beach and play a game to win stuffed toy at the sparsely populated luna park . but kelly friend in brighton be as unsavory a derek and his pal and do not look much different and and a stupid mistake with a mobile phone lead to their discovery . a these simple intensely photographed event unfold flashback tell what lead up to them . london to brighton be as well edit a it be act and and the storytelling be seamless and clear . the nastiness be intense and but not rub in your face . most of it be sense but not see . stuart allen cut derek leg in a car with a straight razor when he send him off to find the girl and derek limp from then on and but we do not see the cutting . his father tie up joanne and she scream and but we do not see the tying . the writing be economical . spruell have only a couple of scene and and his father ( morton ) be barely more than glimpse and but their line aren not easy to forget . cigarette be a theme . everyone be beg them and smoke them and and in the climax stuart tell joanne how his father stop him from smoke a a boy by make him eat a pack of cigarette and even the foil wrapping and the filter and when he catch him with a lit one . the coen brother might envy the grim revenge scene and but it less playful and faster than anything they might do . there conventional music at certain point to heighten drama and suspense and but it not intrusive and it work . an english rap song at the end credit be grimly articulate and revealing . london to brighton show huge promise and revive the british gangster genre and lift it out of it slough of cuteness and mannerism . martin mcdonagh might need to have a look . in what seem likely to be very limited release and williams london to brighton be show at cinema village in new york from february 8 2008. the way america have overlook and undervalue this film be nothing short of embarrass .