Blood - DVD

Film: The brothers Joe (Paul Bettany) and Chrissie Fairburn (Stephen Graham) are cops with heart and soul. Thus they have followed in the footsteps of their father Lenny (Brian Cox), who retired from active police service years ago and has been suffering increasingly from dementia. Joe and Chrissie want to do justice to their father's memory, but in doing so, the rules keep getting in the way of their own morals. When a young girl is gruesomely murdered and everything points to a local pedophile committing the crime, the brothers make a fatal mistake. Since no clear evidence of his guilt can be found, they want to force a confession from him in their own way - and that has terrible consequences...

For the gritty cop thriller Blood, director Nick Murphy (The Awakening) was able to win none other than Skyfall director Sam Mendes as a producer. That is definitely a seal of quality, which the thriller has absolutely deserved despite minor weaknesses. Shot on the Wirral peninsula in the northwest of England, Murphy's home, the film has a very special atmosphere due to the rugged beauty of this landscape. This adds to the oppressive gloom of the story, which makes for a decent level of suspense despite the rather quiet style of staging.

The story is carried by a first-rate ensemble of actors, with Brian Cox as the ageing, demented patriarch and Stephen Graham as Chrissie, collapsing under the weight of his guilt, particularly able to leave a lasting impression. The story structure is extremely strong. Even if dramaturgically nothing new is really offered, the viewer is completely swept away by the dark events. This steadily increases until there is a big turning point in the story after about 40 minutes. This is extremely intense, but the result is that it is followed by a significant slowdown in the tension curve, which has been steadily rising upwards up to this point.

No question, this superbly filmed thriller drama is still gripping in its second half. However, after the extremely strong beginning, there are a few rather plodding moments here where the development of the story is slowed down a bit. This diminishes the lasting effect a bit, as the viewer has enough time to recover from the most intense moment of the movie. But still, after the somewhat open ending, a very positive overall impression prevails. Nick Murphy succeeded in wrapping up a story about morality, guilt and atonement that isn't really new in itself into a depressing and thrilling atmosphere that is hard to resist. Who appreciates sophisticated thriller cinema, which is carried more by its characters and dialogues, than by speed and action, should not miss this dark work in any case. Worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The DVD's image pleases with an atmospheric, somewhat subdued color scheme and a high level of image sharpness, which is maintained despite the many darker moments. The sound is somewhat restrained overall. The very directional dialogue and a coherent soundscape consisting of ambient noise and the soundtrack set the tone here. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has interviews with lead actor Paul Bettany and director Nick Murphy (approx. 11 min.) to offer in addition to the trailer.

Conclusion: Blood is an intense cop thriller in which the boundaries between good and evil, between justice and vigilante justice become increasingly blurred. Despite the rather quiet production, the very exciting story is carried by a strong ensemble of actors, which makes the thriller produced by Sam Mendes even in the somewhat tame moments still absolutely worth watching. The DVD is technically well realized, only the rather meager bonus material disappoints a little. But for the film alone, the DVD has earned a clear Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp