Tyrannosaur – 2011 | 91 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Paddy Considine’s directorial debut is a sincere and unrelentingly bleak study of suburbia violence and its physical and psychological repercussions. Considine perhaps overreaches himself in attempting to tackle numerous social issues and as a consequence the story never feels fully plausible. Peter Mullan produces a forceful if overfamiliar portrayal as a rage-fuelled loner, but its Olivia Colman who takes the acting honours with an empathetic and at times excruciatingly fragile performance.

Joseph (Peter Mullan), a tormented, self-destructive widower plagued by violence, finds hope of redemption in Hannah (Olivia Colman), a Christian charity-shop worker he meets one day while fleeing an altercation. Initially derisive of her faith and presumed idyllic existence, the self-hating Joseph nonetheless returns to the shop and soon realizes that Hannah’s life is anything but placid, she’s suffering domestic and sexual abuse at the hands of her depraved husband, James (Eddie Marsan). As a tentative relationship develops, they come to understand the deep pain in each other’s lives.