There's also strong support from Juliet Stevenson and ... Claire Keelan, who stands out in a small role as, well, a tart.
Comment
05/12/06
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2007)
76
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:50
Fresh:38
Rotten:12
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Director Adrian Shergold doesn't shy away from the darker elements of the movie's subject, and Timothy Spall is mesmerizing as the title character.
Theatrical Release:07-04-2006
Synopsis: Timothy Spall (Professor Pettigrew from the Harry Potter movies) gives a magnificently multilayered performance as the protagonist in PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN. Spall plays Albert Pierrepoint,... [More]
Starring: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, James Corden
Director: Adrian Shergold
Reviews for Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
In the wrong hands this could have been capital punishment, but as a low key drama about one man's unique approach to life and other people's deaths, it's actually just, er, capital.
05/06/06
Top CriticThe actors' understated performances, coupled with an underwritten screenplay, ultimately leave the audience dangling.
05/06/06
Top CriticCompelling, powerful filmmaking.
05/06/06
What the film does have, however, is the courage of its dark convictions; it’s a bleak subject and, commendably, the director doesn’t shy away from it.
05/06/06
Top CriticPlodding biopic.
07/17/09
The key to the film is in the performances by Spall and Stevenson -- and by Marsan. The utter averageness of the characters, their lack of insight, their normality, contrasts with the subject matter in an unsettling way.
11/02/07
Top CriticA suitably sombre treatment of a sombre story, Pierrepoint is nevertheless a riveting drama, sketching out not only the salient facts of Albert Pierrepoint's life but the turmoil in which that life caused in his soul
10/09/07
Albert Pierrepoint single-handedly killed over 450 people in his career, dispatching most of them with an icy precision in less than 30 seconds.
09/07/07
Spall is more than worthy of future leading roles.
08/07/07
Overdramatizes Albert's 24-year career.
07/13/07
Based on their press materials, they think they have made a film damning capital punishment and exploring Britain's most famous executioner. In fact, they haven't. But they have made a film of artistic beauty and endless fascination.
07/10/07
Grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.
06/22/07
The movie grows more compelling in the latter half as British public opinion turns against capital punishment and Pierrepoint begins to have his own doubts.
06/21/07
There is a great deal of food for thought in a film that personalizes the effects of the death penalty on both the executed and the executioner.
06/19/07
A genuine and skillful account of one of Britain's most morally ambiguous working-class characters.
06/18/07
...a powerful pairing of work by two terrific actors [Spall and Stevenson].
06/16/07
The very title of this movie seems to message its doom. What could possibly be dramatic enough about Britain's last hangman to carry our interest over a 90-minute film? A whole lot, it turns out.
06/15/07
A completely engaging film. It's all about performance, and Timothy Spall is riveting as the earnest hangman. If you're desperate for a movie that has nothing to do with sequels or product placement, look no further.
06/15/07
[The film's] grittiness instantly adds to the historically and socio-economically convincing picture of working-class Yorkshire in the last century.
06/15/07
Latest News for Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
May 31, 2007:
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This week at the movies we've got matters of life ("Knocked Up," starring Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen), death ("Mr. Brooks," starring Kevin Costner and... More...
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