Jackdaw is a film that’s interested me for multiple reasons, the first and perhaps most important one being that it’s the feature debut of director Jamie Childs – who cut his teeth on a handful of episodes during Jodie Whittaker’s first series as The Doctor. The 11th series made an instant visual impression, with the use of anamorphic lenses and the work of VFX company Double Negative making things look more cinematic than ever before. Jamie Childs was a key contributor to that overall aesthetic so I was curious to find out if his first film carried that same look.
The second reason is that Jackdaw was filmed in and around Teesside where Childs grew up – but it’s not the first time the area has been used as either a location or an inspiration. Yet unlike the iconic opening shots of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (which were influenced by the industrial landscape in the Tees Valley), Jackdaw makes its locality a main focus.
As a fellow Teessider I was eager to see familiar landmark’s and places I know in a theatrically-released film, so when Jackdaw was released (after premiering at the Showcase Cinema De Lux – a cinema in Stockton-on-Tees that I frequent regularly), I knew I had to see it. Although I saw it in Newcastle, it was still a surreal experience seeing the factories near Hartlepool, different areas of Middlesbrough, and beaches that were often locations for a family walk, on the big screen.
These were selling points for me, and they’re also Jackdaw‘s biggest strengths as Childs proves that he can hold his own with a feature. The film is well-directed, and what could have been by-the-numbers action scenes have been elevated into solid and kinetic sequences. Childs certainly makes Teesside look impressive, doing the same thing here that he did with Sheffield in The Woman Who Fell To Earth – presenting it largely at night to give it lots of majesty. There are, of course, the darker and dingier corners of the area (in this case warehouses as venues for illegal raves and some old hall being used as a den for dealers), but Jackdaw succeeds at establishing a setting, a mood and a sense of time and place.
Where it doesn’t quite succeed is in its story.
I acknowledge that there are only so many stories you can tell and plots that can be done in the action movie genre. Oh look, a building’s under siege by some bad guys, or someone’s getting revenge on villains who kidnapped their loved one(s), or some has-been has been dragged out of retirement when their safety was threatened!
Jackdaw indulges in far too many tired, overworked clichés, and doesn’t do enough to prove itself as a solid action movie or an example of a film made by North-Eastern talent.
Jackdaw sort of falls into the latter camp, with a former veteran needing a quick quid so he ventures into the North Sea for a pickup of a presumably illegal parcel. It’s a decent start, but it soon becomes clear that the plot’s going to be nothing more than an assortment of action movie clichés that aren’t executed very well.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen’s protagonist is one that you really want to sympathise with, but there’s very little interesting about his character – which I can sadly say is the same for his performance. He’s serviceable enough, but he’s no John McClane and he’s certainly no John Wick, and for the most part he’s a fairly bland leading man. Then again, maybe his flat performance does the film some good in the long run as he finds himself surrounded by an abundance of overacting not seen since Revenge of The Sith.
Thomas Turgoose (This Is England), feels astonishingly out of place as Craig – Jack’s reluctant companion for the night. I get that Childs is trying to get a sort of chalk and cheese dynamic, but while Turgoose feels like he’s trying his damnedest to provide some personality, this has the unfortunate side effect of making him annoying.
Joe Blakemore is similar as the eccentric (a nice way of saying insufferable), criminal Silas, and the scenes involving him tend to be the film at its absolute worst. Childs’ cinematic direction may be the only thing saving these scenes from feeling as generic and hammy as a straight-to-DVD action film.
To top it off there’s the really odd choice of using Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and The Ants as the soundtrack to the scene. The song is a classic, but I question what the hell it’s doing or adding as the score of a gritty action scene set in an abandoned theatre run by streetwise drug dealers? They’re seen enjoying loud electronic and rave music, genres that would make much more sense in relation to the scene than Adam and the Ants.
If we’re talking about out-of-place elements though, nothing took me out of the film more than Jenna Coleman as, in terms of this series being about the work of Doctor Who personnel, Jackdaw is actually a double-whammy as “Clara Oswald” herself plays Bo. Coleman is obviously a good actress, but I don’t buy her as this type of free-spirited, edgy outcast – especially as she puts on an accent that I’m not even sure is bad, it’s just so odd to hear it coming out of her mouth that it’s extremely off-putting.
Jackdaw is helmed by someone who’s honed their craft with some good TV work, and who uses the lessons he learned to give his feature debut a great sense of setting and scale. However, as a story it’s pretty bog-standard at best and laughably weak at worst, but more to the point it’s disappointing that a film that uses and celebrates the North-East only has a few cast members from the area. It’s not a bad thing per se, but it is disheartening considering how much the film is rooted in the Tees Valley.
This was definitely a passion project for Childs, and I’m glad that he used this opportunity to show off Teesside in a theatrical film. That said, Jackdaw indulges in far too many tired, overworked clichés, and doesn’t do enough to prove itself as a solid action movie or an example of a film made by North-Eastern talent. Still, there’s potential for better feature-length projects from Childs – he just needs to let someone else write the script, and avoid forcing Jenna Coleman to sound like she’s from Hartlepool.
