Critic Reviews

• Dave Calhoun, Time Out

  Ambitious and beguiling.

• Anton Bitel, musicOMH.com

  dares, from the unlikely vantage of Britain's criminal underworld, to look heavenwards - and, in its darkly pessimistic way, to see nothing there.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  As painfully hypnotic as watching a religious zealot ranting in the street and carrying a banner proclaiming the second coming.

• Nicholas Barber, Independent on Sunday

  Comes across as an obscure Renaissance play which has been badly modernised.

• Edward Porter, Sunday Times (UK)

  Not every turn in the story is well judged, but what's more damaging is that the film's general aura is not sufficiently powerful.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  The moral of this well-shot but grossly uneven film is obviously that, once you get what you want, you may well find either that you don't want it, or that devastating complications can ensue.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  "Muddled" is the polite word, balderdash the preferred one.

• Tom Dawson, Total Film

  Thanks to some sluggish pacing, sketchily drawn characterisations (notably Marc Warren's doubting priest) and a predictable, gun-toting finale, though, it ends up as far less than you might have hoped for.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  The Italian denim company Meltin' Pot paid for Rankin and Chris Cottam's unendurably pretentious stab at gangland street spirituality. Why?

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  The direction from Rankin and Chris Cottam is very uncertain; there is lots and lots of shouty acting and a cringeworthy denouement worthy of Viz comic's legendary cockney villain Big Vern.

• Saxon Bullock, Film4

  Bizarre, involving and highly original, this leftfield gangland fable adds up to a strange, surprisingly moving experience.

• Matthew Leyland, BBC

  A bizarre brew of Brit-grit, magic realism and religious allegory.

Read all 12 critic reviews