5/10 - Hal Samuel
4.3.2.1 is the second feature film by Noel Clarke, a rising star of the British film scene.
After coming to people's attention in a string of TV roles, most notably Doctor Who, Clarke made his cinema breakout-success with Kidulthood, followed by its sequel Adulthood, which he wrote, starred in and directed. Despite both films' lukewarm critical reaction, they went on to make much more money than anyone expected, a rare surprise in the British industry. The ground was laid for his next project.
4.3.2.1 is the story of four West London women who become embroiled in a frankly ridiculous diamond-heist scenario. The story is told in four chapters, each following the events of the day from a different perspective. The fundamental lack of credibility in the overarching story basically throws any chance of you taking the film seriously straight out the window, but this might not be a bad thing. Noel Clarke clearly intended to make an entertaining film, mainly for a very specific age-group, and to that extent he largely succeeds.
He co-directs with Mark David, and once again pens the script himself. It's clear from very early on that he's not very talented at this. The characters are hard to believe in, the scenarios they find themselves in are overblown, the whole story is all over the place. None of this is helped by the mainly hammed-up performances. The one notable exception to this is relative newcomer Ophelia Lovibond as Shannon. Even with a weakly written character, she manages to bring a believability and depth of feeling to her role that puts the other actresses to shame.
Still, with characters this unbelievable in the first place, the lack of credible acting doesn't detract too seriously from the experience. Most of the cast-members manage to bring enough energy to their roles to keep things bubbling along.
Despite the film's many faults, too numerous to mention, there's an overall feeling of energy and creativity running through it that elevates it beyond the sum of its ineptly handled parts. Noel Clarke may not be a very skilled writer or director, but there's something exiting about what he's bringing to British film, and it's hard not to applaud his efforts. 4.3.2.1 is a deeply flawed experience, and for that alone it's hard to recommend, but what Noel Clarke has achieved, purely off his own back, in the British film industry too, is quite incredible. For that at least I think he deserves our respect.
