Movie: Adulthood * * *
(18, general release)
REFORMED: Noel Clarke returns in Adulthood
Friday June 20 2008
The 2006 movie Kidulthood was like a west London City of God (by way of Larry Clark) for the Asbo/Skins generation. It rattled the British media with its depiction of chav teen life, and foreshadowed the stabbings and street violence that have marred London's inner city in recent years.
Now writer, director and star Noel Clarke revisits many of that movie's central characters in the less effective follow-up Adulthood, which is set six years after the events of the first.
The focus of the movie is on one day in the life Sam Peel (played by Clarke), who was last seen beating a young rival to death at the end of Kidulthood. He is released from prison having served six years for the murder, apparently a changed man.
Upon arriving home, Sam is attacked, and realises that a gang made up of his victim's friends are out to get him.
As the day goes on, Sam is forced to confront those he has hurt and attempt to break the cycle of violence.
Adulthood would have worked better had it concentrated on how a young offender fits back into society. Instead, Clarke casts the narrative net far too wide, bringing back most of the leading characters from the first movie, as well as introducing several more, including a troubled love interest (played by EastEnders alumnus Scarlett Alice Johnson).
As with the first movie, the often unintelligible pan-ethnic patois spoken by the characters can grate, and in fact has lost some of its authentic power this time around having morphed almost into a parody of itself. Adulthood is a passable though topical drama that's worth a look if you liked its progenitor. It just could have done with a plot cull and a lot more focus, innit? n
- Declan Cashin
