Welcome to the Punch
by Bethany Lewis
WELCOME TO THE PUNCH is only director Eran Creevy’s second feature film, but you wouldn’t know it to look at it. Punch is technically proficient, stylishly shot, competently edited, and excellently cast. The film is about obsessive and traumatized police detective Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy, who is now inexplicably but delightfully an action star) who is shot in the knee by criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong). Years later, when Sternwood’s son gets into some trouble, Lewinsky sees a chance to take Sternwood down for good and redeem himself in the eyes of his superiors. However, things are rarely as they seem, and it turns out there are deeper conspiracies at work that eventually bring Lewinsky and Sternwood together.
Surprisingly, for a crime thriller, we’re never quite sure what Sternwood is wanted for – aside from apparently stealing something in a rather stylish and choreographed manner – and it doesn’t much seem to matter. While the criminal intrigue is indeed gripping, and the shootouts entertaining and exciting, the heart of the story is about dedication, love, loss, betrayal and how it brings unlikely partners together and pulls others apart. When faced with Sternwood’s emotional reaction to a great loss, Lewinsky first looks on in ugly, smug satisfaction – his revenge for the bullet years earlier. But that expression fades away, replaced by one of guilt and pity. Not long after, Lewinsky is faced with his own loss as Sternwood looks on, and the two sit together in silent understanding and grief, bound together by mutual pain and loss.
The film itself is shot beautifully, all shades of cold blues and brilliant whites, and almost always at night. Everything seems crisp and new. Even London shows no signs of its age or history – only the modern, the here, and the now. The only landmarks to be seen are part of the City’s skyline; the Gherkin and the still-under-construction Shard. No sign of Parliament, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, or even the relatively new London Eye. It is interesting to see a British film that doesn’t capitalize on that old world, touristy charm, but instead cashes in on London’s newest achievements as a modern city. And while the movie is fast paced, it also has something of the slow, suspenseful rhythm of the mystery genre – long stretches of investigation punctuated with dangerous action.
The acting really ties everything together, with a cast that would be any anglophile’s dream and each suited perfectly to their part. James McAvoy is already a well-known name in Hollywood, but you’ve never seen him quite as hard-boiled and gritty as his Max Lewinsky. How the boyishly charming romantic lead ever became an action hero is one of those mysteries – like how Liam Neeson suddenly became the badass of all badasses – but he brings something believable and refreshing to the typical hero role and carries it through. Mark Strong is a lesser-known name in the US (known recently as Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes) but his Sternwood has a steady intensity, a gaze filled with detached curiosity and a touch of empathy that is slightly unsettling and more than a little compelling. He may be a criminal, but one gets the feeling that he’s really not a bad guy. Round out the cast with roles played by David Morrissey, Peter Mullan, and Jason Flemyng, and you have just about every British crime drama for the price of one. And there is never anything wrong with a good British crime drama.
