High Rise – high concept, low returns

Ever since Tom Hiddleston became an evil Norse god he can do no wrong in many people’s eyes (that’s a nod to ‘Thor’ in case you have no idea what I mean by that).  In any case, besides – allegedly – dating Taylor Swift for about five minutes, he’s pretty popular right about now.  Therefore, a high concept arty piece, brimming with social commentary and with him taking centre stage must be worth a watch, right?  Sorry Tom.

Now, I like to think that I’m no stranger to the slightly more ‘abstract’ films.  I don’t just want to see endless car chases or Transformers movies.  I loved ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and David Lynch’s work.  However, I just couldn’t really get into this.  It’s based on a book of the same name that’s apparently had a script associated with it that’s been kicking around various productions companies for years.  Now, it’s only just been made, despite everything about it screaming that it’s set in the seventies.

As the title suggests, it’s all based in and around a high rise block of flats.  The opening scene shows that some sort of catastrophe has befallen the building and those left are living almost in feral conditions.  Then we’re flung a little further back in time and the film begins proper with us seeing the events which lead up to this social decay.

And, Tom Hiddleston shows that he’s not just a meanie with a horned helmet, he can also hold his own as a leading man.  He does carry the film as the well-to-do tenant of one of the apartments.  He’s slightly aloof and disdainful of much of what goes on around him – almost carrying himself a little like Patrick Bateman from ‘American Psycho,’ but never without sinking into quite such a chainsaw-wielding maniac. However, just because he’s not trying to feed stray cats to cash machines, doesn’t mean there isn’t a healthy (or rather Unhealthy!) helping of s3x and violence.  In fact… that’s really all the film is.

It’s clear that the film has something to say about society and the way we lived.  But it seems to get stuck in a bit of a senseless loop where gratuitous violence is all that’s on offer.  And, once you’ve seen one stylised fist fight (or worse!) then you probably don’t want to see one in the very next scene as well.  Perhaps if this film had been released in the seventies when such sights were a novelty in cinema and would therefore generate enough ‘shock’ with the public to make it stand out then it might have got a greater following.  However, despite the decadent setting and the stylish way it’s all filmed, there’s not really an awful lot here to see.  Yes, fans of Tom himself should enjoy it more than most, but it still feels like an empty Clockwork Orange clone that’s been lost in time all these years and has missed its window where it would have been popular.

I really wanted to like this and stuck with it hoping that it would finally change pace and pick itself up.  However, it just repeats the same cycle over and over again and whatever message it thought it was trying to say gets lost along the way.  Probably would have worked better as an art house piece that ran for between 20-30 minutes.  It looks nice, but feels hollow.  Wait… is that what it’s trying to say about life?

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back