I don’t really know what to make of this film and I haven’t seen one like it for a long time but it could be described as gritty, dramatic and violent. It contains gratuitous amounts of swearing, particularly “CAAANT”, “FACKING” and “FACKING CAAANT” and there are some delightfully vile descriptions of the female anatomy.

It is made quite clear from the outset that the characters have little respect for women or anyone else for that matter. I would not recommend that you bring your grandmother or your first date to see this, not even as a joke.

44 Inch Chest is based around the story of a man who has just found out his wife has been cheating on him and she intends to pursue her new relationship.

The opening 15-20 minutes of this film are most enjoyable, the opening scene, in particular, is brilliant, there is all that swearing I mentioned and an amusing kidnapping thrown in for the laugh.

It seemed so promising but the film somehow turned into talking heads, five hard-lad-cockneys in a room effing and blinding and acting all tough, that’s the problem I had with this film, it was all talk and no action, or very little anyway.

The action scenes were mainly composed of flashbacks or visions the main character experienced, basically, him beating up his wife and his wife acting seductive in front of his mates.

The film looked great and the cinematography was spot-on, clearly relating to the director, Malcolm Venville, having a strong photography background, the film looked gritty and gritty, exactly like you would expect.

John Hurt played his character brilliantly and was most amusing, he was constantly swearing and going off on odd tangents but they did get kind of tiresome after a while especially because nothing much else seemed to be happening around him.

I regret to admit that I almost fell asleep at one point but maybe 44 Inch Chest just wasn’t for me. I’m sure this film, for some, could be considered a “poignant” piece based on a story relating to morality and ethical decisions but I just wasn’t buying it.

Emer Molloy