Review: Peterloo

I'm always intrigued by a new Mike Leigh film. I may never go nuts for all of his films. But much like Ken Loach, when it works, it becomes a British classic.

Also, when finding out what the story was about for this, it sounded like a story that needed to be told on the big screen.

After seeing it, it certainly impacted as much when I heard about it.
The first two acts are purely build-up. However, every scene in there is really well executed and you can feel the tension mounting to the event itself.
I was also noticed some high quality production design as the sets and costumes look on point and thoroughly detailed with the time period.
When we got to the final act, while it did show some shocking content, it showed why this was rated 12. The action never felt fully utilised and felt tame at times. However, my investment with the characters was enough for me to still feel highly emotional by the time the credits rolled.

The performances were more ensemble than anything else. Every single cast member looked the part and certainly showed that their work paid off in fitting into the period and region.
But the notable performances came from Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake and few others that I'm struggling to fit names to as it's such a large cast full of many actors you will have seen in many British TV dramas.

It wasn't just the acting that was a major positive. There was also, the production design and the script.
It's set in 1819 and everything about the films look was done with such detail that I'm amazed at how they created some sequences. If it does get involved in the major awards, its best bet is certainly production or costume design.
The writing was also noticeably strong and in a film where there are a lot of speeches, they certainly needed to work.

But as mentioned before, the only negative worth talking about was the tame ending. They should have made it feel much more violent. However, I think the end product was very purposeful to make sure it gets 12 rating and a big audience can check it out. Also giving it this particular rating would make it worthy of showing it to older kids in schools.
A minor negative I had with it was the duration. Despite the 2hrs 32 mins flying by, there were definitely numerous sequences that could have been cut.

The reason I mention schools is that this will very well be labelled as an important film.
This terrible true story is one that everyone needs to do. Plus, it's timeless and universal themes will making it appealling to a broad audience.
The performances are really good, it looks fantastic and the whole viewing experience is constantly impactful and could make  many people speechless

Rating: 8/10