Playing in limited release now in the UK, Toby Kebbell takes on urban youths while also trying to stop a terrorist plot in Matthew Hope’s film The Veteran.
At the moment, Toby Kebbell seems to be a bit of a “hey that guy” but he is certainly starting to make a name for himself. Really bursting onto the scene in Shane Meadow’s Dead Man’s Shoes as the brother of Paddy Considine’s character, he has then gone on to be pretty damn versatile in his choices of roles, taking on Rob Gretton in Control, the “RocknRolla” of Guy Ritchie’s film of the same name, a young prince in Prince of Persia and a flamboyant stage magician in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Not one of his roles has ever been quite the same, he’s been impressive in all mentioned and hopefully this trend should continue with upcoming roles in major films The War Horse and Wrath of the Titans. For now though, he’s gone back to the gritty, socially aware type of fare that Dead Man’s Shoes certainly was with The Veteran, a film I knew very little about going in, an effort to have a nice change for myself more than anything.
Robert Miller (Kebbell) has just returned from years with the Army and is having trouble adjusting to civilian life, something made harder by the gangs which rule the estate he lives on, these gangs led by Tyrone Jones (Ashley Thomas), a man who has no trouble giving a pre-teen a gun. Miller doesn’t have to find a supermarket job though as friend Dan (Tom Brooke) hooks him up with a job working secretly for the government under the orders of Chris (Tony Curran) and Gerry (Brian Cox) to stop a potential terrorist bombing.
Upon leaving the cinema after The Veteran, I had to collect my thoughts for a couple of minutes as the film that had played before my eyes was really rather messing with my mind. What exactly is The Veteran? Is it a social realist drama about how inner-city estates are being left to be run by those within its boundaries and everyone else turns a blind eye? Is it a terrorist thriller about Kebbell and friends uncovering a secret plot with potential ties to people and organisations you’d never expect? Is it some sort of bizarre dark satire about how some filmmakers randomly put in scenes of violence for no reason than to give the audience a thrill? The Veteran is all of these and if you think that sounds like an uncomfortable mix, friend you’d be right.
The opening 20 minutes or so is a nice bit of scene setting that plays out like Harry Brown but with a much younger and more outwardly capable protagonist, as Kebbell’s character tries to work out what to do with himself while also growing more and more concerned with how his friend Fahad (Ivanno Jeremiah) is dealing with the gangs around his estate, much like Caine’s Harry did for his friend in that film also, now I come to think of it. This section is well told, the threats of “join us or you are our enemy” by kingpin Jones are tense and seeing a young kid looking very capable with a machine gun is a harrowing sight indeed. The claustrophobic nature of the setting is utilised well by director Jones and the film has a nice feeling of quicksand to it, the narrative bubbling away nicely.
Then though this terrorist element comes into the film, bearing no relation to the initial plotting at all except in some thematic linking later on which is clumsy to say the least. Suddenly we are away from the estate and instead on the hunt for evidence of potential terrorism and dealing with an informant. While this section of the film, which takes up more of the runtime as it goes on is also well handled, the jerking between the “claustophobic” estate and the wider open plains the rest of the film is set in is incredibly jarring and all creates a sense that Hope as director and co-screenwriter had a lot to say and wanted to jam it all into the one runtime.
That’s not to say all of this is unsuccessful at all though. The Veteran has an interesting depiciton of violence in a few sequences where Kebbell beliveably kicks some ass but is also very much hurt, leading to one long sequence where we see him getting patched up. Kebbell’s character is not Arnold in Commando, he doesn’t brush off bullets or punches as if they are twigs, he has to deal with them and this sense of “real ” very much grounds the film. Also adding to this is Kebbell’s performance which is superb. A man of violence but also of hard-work and integrity, watching him go about his business is an always engaging prospect and while we aren’t given much backstory, we can tell he is at heart a nice guy and his actions through the film though often violent are all for a greater good I think most will side with. Tony Curran and Brian Cox are fairly one-note, just playing shady government men but they play their roles fine, it’s just the Kebbell show really though the informant he sparks up a relationship with Alyana (Adi Bielski) gets a few moments to shine also and has a great line in steely but nervous facial expressions which really help as the film comes to it’s climax.
And then… the climax. Remember me saying everything feels “real”? This does not apply to the last ten minutes which turns into somewhat of a video game and got laughter from more than one person I was in the screening with. In a way, it feels like the only ending this film could have, especially given that one major plot point has barely been touched on for a half hour previous, but in the drawn out and plain ludicrous way Kebbell’s final actions are portrayed, any point the filmmakers had is really taken away in a sequence which feels made to really just indulge some members of the audience and actually seems to buy into the message I thought the film previous to this had actually been trying to dispel. To say it’s a troubling ending for me is an understatement. For meat-headed action fans bored with the rest of the film, it will play great. For those who were intrigued by what the film was trying to say, it’s a real brain melter of an ending.
The Veteran is a somewhat troublesome film in that it just tries to do and say too much for what it actually is and by the end it seems to have actually been confused by it’s own storytelling. It’s an engaging watch and has a few scenes and characters of note, obviously Kebbell’s being a highlight but in all it is a disappointment. One to certainly check out though if only so I can have a conversation with you about just what it was actually all about.
6/10
