[Locke]

Surprisingly? Whicher got a second film. And how do I feel about it? I'm kinda torn. On the onehand, the lack of filmicness of Road Hill was its biggest problem, it was less a movie and more a filmed stageplay. But in an attempt to not repeat this, Angel Lane is almost 90s comics level of ludicrous as it attempts to top its predecessor at every story beat.

Road Hill had its fair share of twists, but they were carefully spaced out, crucial to the plot and most importantly made sense. Here so many twists are piled on, the pile grows so high aeroplanes crash into it. By about the half way point I really had no idea what was going on any more, with only a handful of faces to put to about three dozen names.

In the original it all largely took place in a single house, as the secrets of that house were revealed. Well in the second film, despite taking place across London, they try and make every single damn character connected whether through sheer coincidence so obviously engineered or because apparently at this time London had about ten people living in it (not including extras).

Not to mention that once again Whicher is full of suspicions he has no evidence for, so his reputation gets dashed before he eventually turns out to be right. This time though he isn't chasing a single piece of crucial evidence, oh no that is far too subtle for this film...

And then of course we have the plot that blasts at a breakneck pace and never slows down as Whicher darts from location to location, as if the film fears that if he stops in a single place for to long the boredom of the first movie and the prison of Road Hill House will take over.

And as if they were needed, action scenes! Whicher faces a knife wielding suspect, busts out of an insane asylum (which is apparently very easy) and it all leads to a shooting.

Probably the only compliment I have for this is the character of Whicher himself. Considine reprises the role, which I am thankful for, both because I am a huge fan of his work but also because he deserves this Whicher. This Whicher is everything the character was hinted to be in the last instalment. Extremely complex, racked with grief and paranoia and his drive to do the right thing although consistently noble, is perhaps driven by deeper more personal and more selfish conflictions within. In short, he is utterly human in his flaws.