Why 'Dead Man's Shoes' Just Plain Works

There comes a moment during Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes where I should have cried foul. Should have cried it at the top of my lungs, through a megaphone, and then posted a blog which simple read "FOUL!"
However, this was not the case. I won't spoil the movie by saying just what it was that happened, but I will tell you why you should see the movie. Consider this a love letter to a movie that manages to succeed where so many others fail, all because of the strength of its characters.
I'll begin with the plot, though.
Richard returns to his sleepy British town from his stint in the royal military to exact revenge upon the gang of people who took advantage of his mentally retarded younger brother. Simple enough, but loaded with enough emotional potential to raise it above it's single-sentence plot outline.
To pigeonhole this movie into a genre, it would most likely have to be either called a slasher or a revenge flick. It involves a 'righteous' individual who goes after the 'bad people' who hurt his vulnerable brother in his absence. It also involves a group of people terrorized by a murderer. Already astute readers will be able to see the conflict at the heart of these two statements.
In a lesser movie the group of individuals under the knife of the avenger would be purely evil, growing only more enraged and dangerous as they are winnowed away. Dead Man's Shoes is too clever for this, however. Instead of a group of rabid devils we get a very common and comically benign druggies. These men aren't dealing smack to children and killing families - they sit in a room, talking about sex, getting high and pondering life's little inanities. Imagine your college roommate, ten years later, still hanging around in a small apartment with a pot-leaf tapestry draped over the couch. They are sympathetic in their complete and utter inanity.
Then there is Richard. Instead of a random bloke who becomes supernaturally adept at killing people, he is a trained fighter who suddenly turns his deadly skills against a new enemy. His hair is grown out a bit, slightly beyond the high and tight style favored by most militarizes. His beard is shaggy, unkempt, about as fair grown as his hair. He is a soldier recently removed from the field, still keeping all of his skills, in a new environment, growing from his old life into his life of vengeance. Instead of a mask bought from a Halloween shop, he uses a gas mask from his days in the forces. He is always who he is and was, never how a standard plot would make him.
What is most intelligent about this film is how it spends time with its characters. Richard, played with staggering and frightening intensity by Paddy Considine, gets very minimal screen time for someone who is, ostensibly, the protagonist of the movie. He creates, with this limited time, a character who exudes himself through his skin like a fog. You can see his violent intensity in his eyes, his rage in his movements, and his madness in his voice. If we were to spend too much time with his character, we might lose the ability to see him as a tortured avenger, and only see him as a vicious killer.
To fill this void we get an extended amount of time with the posse of druggies. In flashbacks we are shown their violence, their cruelty. In present, we are shown their fear, their inability to grasp the consequences of their actions. These are men who have made mistakes, who have done wrongs, and who desperately want to escape them. Their past wrongs were committed out of ignorance in the name of a good time. Their current wrongs are done out of fear, in the name of self preservation. There is nothing we do that we can't understand, because in the end these are real people. No Hollywood beasts exist in this movie.
Add to these well-drawn characters the universally laudable performances. No false notes are struck, no out-of-character moments created. In this way alone the film could have succeeded.
The directing is likewise exemplary. The camera work is naturalistic, while each scene is granted a sense of menace through the use of a dreary, sodden English town as a setting. Nothing flashy or tricky is done in the name of cheap thrills. We get the view of a party who is standing there, watching it all happen. The music is fitting and yet unobtrusive. It is vaguely spooky, coming in only in rare moments, and is always constant. If a scene starts off with serene composition, the music doesn't shift violently from down-played instrumentals to blaring guitars and sirens, even if a body is discovered.
One of the best scenes, in my opinion, comes in the form of the gang's first interaction with Richard after he spends a night playing pranks on them to get their attention. The acting, directing, and writing of this scene are all pitch perfect, and encompass what makes this movie so wonderful.
The gang's leader, Sonny (Gary Stretch), steps up to Richard, trying to intimidate him, to get him to admit to what he's done, but Richard reacts in a surprising and genre-defying way.
Sonny: You know, the lads have this ridiculous idea--
Richard: Yeah, it was me.
There is no mystery to all this. Richard makes no attempt to hide his anger and his threat. In a lesser movie the killer always hides himself in the shadows. Meanwhile, Richard tells them it was him, tells them where he lives, and takes it a step further.
Sonny: You're not afraid of me, are ya?
(Richard smiles and shakes his head no)
Sonny: You're making me very nervous, Richard.
Richard: Well you should be...because I'm gonna fucking hit you all.
Sonny: I don't like being threatened, Richard.
Richard: I'm not threatening you, mate. It's beyond fucking words. I watched over you when you were asleep. I looked at your fucking neck, and was that far away from slicing it.
A letter of intent from a killer. Refreshing in its honesty and true sense of dread. It is also another insight into Richard's mindset; he doesn't care about being found out, doesn't want to get away with it scott-free.
I could go on forever, but like any good movie, especially a slasher/revenge picture, the twists and turns are best discovered freshly upon viewing.
Dead Man's Shoes is the perfect example of a small movie with seemingly familiar elements that creates something that feels entirely new because of the immense skill put behind its characters, acting, writing and directing.
There's no need to cry foul, but rather, "It's good!"