When first made aware of Nick Love’s attempt to remake – or ‘reimagine’ – The Firm, Alan Clarke’s gritty 1989 television drama which centred on the leader of a football hooligan gang (the ‘firm’ of the title), my reaction could best be summed up in three words; bemusement, dismay, irritation.

Love’s most notable contribution to cinema has been the abominable Football Factory; a confusing violence vehicle, if you like, that served no purpose and contained no message other than the glorification of vicious, pointless, organized thuggery. His tilt at bringing Alan Clarke’s masterpiece to the big screen would, I was sure, be in equal measures cringeworthy, tacky, stupid and two-dimensional (at most).

So imagine my surprise when the end product turned out to be fairly decent. It’s still more about presentation and style; the 1989 setting of the original has been moved back slightly to the early 80’s, and much of the film’s allure revolves around the fashion, slang, personality and culture in general from that time, as it is lovingly recreated in Love’s eyes.

This in itself grated somewhat, given that the evident affection with which the era is depicted results in what essentially amounts to fantasy – Love might not be glamorizing violence with this project, but he does seem to think the early 80’s were glamorous or prosperous, which is pretty damn curious. In any case, while the setting of the film appears to be a sizeable hunk of the draw, the characters and story are the be all and end all in this business.

Aside from the time shift, the change in the main subject for the narrative is the major deviation from the original. Rather than following the leader of the firm, Bex (played adequately by Paul Anderson here), the main character in the 2009 version is the young, raw recruit, Dom (via a strong performance from Calum McNab). Through his experience, from first meeting the older, tougher, meaner, smarter, cooler Bex, to joining their firm and getting involved in their confrontations with rival firms, we are invited to witness the whole tawdry affair first hand, warts ‘n’ all.

Except that this is complete bollocks. Love’s Firm shows us absolutely nothing we haven’t seen from this genre before. The dialogue, especially in the first twenty minutes or so, is extremely witty; “You melt”, “You dry lunch”, “You couldn’t hit water if you fell out of a boat”, etc. There’s some nice comic relief via Dom’s parents too, and the undercurrent of humour is welcome.

Nonetheless, and it bears repeating, there is nothing to this movie – it is completely superfluous. The story arc – impressionable young bloke becomes devoted follower of older bloke, becomes eager to earn respect of older bloke, older bloke turns out to be a bit of a shit really, younger bloke begins to question his own hero worshipping, whole thing wanders towards inevitable dénouement – is something we’ve seen before, and better.

This is pretty disposable cack. Still Nick Love’s best film though. Says it all, really.

- Sebastian Clare

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