Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Critical Eye UK Except it isn't. And it never was. Life up north in the 1970s -- and especially, England's Northeast -- was nothing like the monochrome wasteland presented here. Nor was policing like this, either, despite the protestations of those connected with this low-rent low-budget outing.Absent its premise, therefore, of hard men in hard times in hard places, "Harrigan" is no more than a straight-to-video made-for-TV affair, its simplicities of plot and characterisation conveyed via clichés so stupefyingly banal that one positively yearns for the raw energy of yesteryear's Caine and Hodges in the same part of the world at the same time as this."Harrigan" doesn't convince at any level. Stephen Tompkinson has already had a stab at playing a TV policeman -- the leaden "DCI Banks" -- and failed utterly in that role, so why he's here essaying the same kind of grim teeth-gritted stoicism all over again is baffling.About the only thing that does ring true is the way "Harrigan" -- too close to Don Siegel's "Madigan" for my liking, though it's doubtful anyone involved in this British production will even have heard of that superb US police procedural -- seems to have been shot on a budget typical of a 1970s British TV show.But that doesn't redeem anything. Unrelentingly drab, dismal, and derivative of a thousand B-Movies that have gone before -- including Westerns as well as copper operas -- "Harrigan" is yet another example, were such needed, of how small-scale British movie making is today incapable of working the crime genre in the way that films like "Violent Playground" and "Never Let Go" did, half a century and more ago.Still, at least there's some originality in the write-in campaign that seems to be underway where this comment thread is concerned -- a case for investigation by Detective Harrigan, perhaps? Or IMDb itself . .

awhittall This really is a very worthwhile movie, good story line and quite believable.I don't understand earlier comments about the budget for this film and how it was spent, I have seen some real shockers for the same budget (Last Passenger for one, now that was a painful movie to watch with not an original concept anywhere).The characters are quickly developed and have reasonable depth.The script was nicely put together and not over-done.Dark and dreary was well portrayed as were the emotions of the situation.I would recommend this movie, an interesting watch.

Mark Forster I don't know who Jessica Lear is, but either she was watching a different film or she has a personal grudge against someone in the crew. A gritty, believable story, well shot, well researched locations, with characters you can really feel for and understand. The authentic 70s feel of the film, right down to the cinematography, is perfect. The dark, brooding undercurrent of the film encapsulates well the desperate and depressing mood the UK, and particularly the north, was suffering in the mid-seventies, without masking the human story behind the main characters. The touches of humour, just took the hard edge off the violence, and strong visual and audible content, to make this a thoroughly enjoyable film, well worth going to see. The storyline and the characters have enough mileage left in them for a sequel or TV series to follow. Good luck to all involved, it is heartening to see a good British film without the mockney mafia involved.

Clive Davies-Frayne When someone says "British Crime Drama" I know what to expect, either Danny Dyer or another Mockney Guy Ritchie knock-off. So, it was a real delight to see that Harrigan is neither. Instead of geezers and shooters, Harrigan is moody, dark and tense crime drama set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 1970's. Stephen Tompkinson is a refreshing change from the usual, in that he delivers a powerful, but essentially understated performance in the main role. The same is true of the supporting cast, who manage to give very solid performances. On top of this, the film is beautifully shot. James McAleer, the DOP, has managed to get just the right balance between the darkness of the story and the warm tones of the period. The movie is based on the real life experiences of a retired copper, and because if this it does offer up some new ideas, whilst not deviating too far from what you'd expect from a maverick cop drama. It's a brave production team that takes on a period drama on a British independent movie budget, but this one manages to pull it off with a certain amount of style.