TwentyFourSeven

In his directorial debut, Shane Meadows targets Margaret Thatcher's socio-economic legacy by illuminating its ill repercussions in England's urban housing projects. Bob Hoskins gives a rich performance as Alan Darcy, a self-appointed social advocate who opens a boxing club to provide the neighborhood's dissolute youth with a safe haven. Employing tough love and preaching the discipline of self-control, both in and out of the ring, Darcy reaches out to the troubled lads and gives them a spark of hope while exorcising the demons from his own cloudy past. The melodrama rolls along predictably until the climatic boxing match, when the pressure of cynicism uncorks and Darcy registers as the most self-destructive of the lot.

Shot in gritty black and white, TwentyFourSeven is a fantastic-looking picture; what undoes the film is its languorous tempo, absence of character development, and dyslexic narrative. Meadows demonstrates enough stylish muscle to be a contender -- he's just not ready to go the distance as a storyteller. At the Harvard Square.

-- Tom Meek