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For the past three years, director Matthew Cullen’s edgy dystopian debut, London Fields, has been caught up in legal battles that prevented its release. But, as is often the case in situations like these, now that it’s finally cut through the lawsuits, it turns out that it probably wasn’t worth the fight.
London Fields fights for literary greatness with Samson Young (Billy Bob Thornton), a struggling author who swaps apartments with an acclaimed novelist and ends up in the middle of a twisted mystery in London. His impossibly beautiful neighbor, Nicola Six (Amber Heard), has always had premonitions about death—and she knows that hers is coming soon. Desperate for a bestseller, Sam asks Nicola to allow him to write the story of her murder—and how it relates to two very different but equally lovesick men.
The idea here is that Nicola Six is such a stunning woman that men will do anything to be with her—and her story is so captivating that Sam is desperate to turn it into the bestseller that he’s spent his life chasing. But, sadly, nothing here is as fascinating as it’s supposed to be.
The dystopian setting seems to have no rhyme or reason. It’s set in the midst of “The Crisis” in London, yet we’re given no information about what that actually means—apart from the fact that the city looks a whole lot seedier than usual, and it somehow causes the criminals to be flamboyant and over-the-top in a way that only Johnny Depp can manage. And the strange setting gives the film an unstable foundation.
Of course, it also doesn’t help that Nicola is simply a horrible character—one who is fully aware of the power she has over the people around her, just because of her physical appearance. And she uses that power to toy with the other characters—writing her own stories, asking for favors, making promises, and ruining lives in the process. She’s also an absolutely ridiculous character—who walks around the troubled city (and her own trashed apartment) looking like she’s waiting for her Vanity Fair photo shoot to begin.
Admittedly, the film has a few clever moments that come shining through the darkness and grime—but, for the most part, it’s a laughably melodramatic mess of a crime thriller.
With its big-name cast and its intriguing style, London Fields seems like it could be a dark and imaginative mystery. But, instead, it’s much like its main character: stylishly muddled and entirely predictable.
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