A Prayer Before Dawn * * *

How you liking your Thailand  holiday so far?

          When this started I thought we were watching something which the main character was dreaming or remembering.  And then I thought this same dream or remembrance seemed to be going on for a long time.  Finally I had to accept that this was it.  This was the way the whole film is going to be.
           "I'll get used to it", I said to myself.  And I suppose I did, but I didn't get seduced by it that's for sure.
           This is another one of those drama's which are shot like a documentary.  Grainy, hand held, following rather than leading. It's style reminded me a bit of The Florida Project and American Honey: I think we're all a bit over this new "realism" by now. At least I am.
           The funny thing is, despite it's griminess I didn't find it that realistic.  Oh sure, the lead actor (Joe Cole) really throws himself into it, and the location is utterly convincing, but I felt many of the extras were treating this as  a bit of a giggle - which they probably were.
          It's a true story, adapted from the book.  An Englishman living in Bangkok is a boxer but also a drug addict.  Being a drug addict in Thailand is not really ideal, as their rehabilitation program is primarily locking you up in an overcrowded putrid prison with some of the hardest and nastiest men you could ever hope to not encounter.  Such was the fate of William Moore.
          Fortunately his boxing skills helped save his farang arse to a degree, and after settling down he is allowed in the gym to learn the skill of Thai Boxing and gets bonded with other boxers.  To give the story impetus they put him in a situation where he must win a fight to pay off a debt (you don't want to be in debt to a fellow prisoner in a Thai prison).
            The last fifteen minutes of the film, where we are temporarily out of the prison, are the best by far and go a long way to relieving a hundred minutes of such insistent monotony that not even murder, rape and lady-boy visitors give it modulation.  But maybe that's the whole idea.