Pusher (2012) starring Richard Coyle, Bronson Webb, Agyness Deyn, Mem Ferda directed by Luis Prieto Movie Review

Pusher (2012)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Richard Coyle in Pusher (2012)

Under Pressure

Things were ticking over for Frank (Richard Coyle); he does some small level drug dealing but nothing major. But he has debts piling up with big time supplier Milo (Zlatko Buric) and whilst he has someone smuggling some drugs in for him which he plans to sell to pay of his debts he is still piling up new debts. But then a deal goes wrong and he finds himself taken in for questioning by the police and from then on his week just gets progressively worse as Milo and his son Hakan (Mem Ferda) put pressure on him to pay up, forcing Frank to turn to the dark side in order to get the money to pay them back.

Evidently "Pusher" is a remake a 1996 movie directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and by the use of the word "evidently" you would be right to assume I haven't seen it. And evidently this remake is unnecessary as it ends up an incredibly average movie about a drug dealer who gets in over his head when things turn bad and the pressure gets to him. In truth I can see what people mean as "Pusher" ends up a familiar movie from scenes of violence through to scenes of nudity as well as the club heavy soundtrack. There are some surprises but from characters through to style it feels like we have been here before.

But if you can set aside while watching that this is a movie about a drug dealer and focus on this being a desperate man it actually becomes okay. The sense of unrest which Frank feels as his debts mount up, the unhappiness of having no control over his life and that feeling that he can't ever get away from it even whilst out at bar is very real. For that reason Richard Coyle's performance is the best thing about "Pusher" as he makes the nightmare come alive.

What this all boils down to is that "Pusher" is an ordinary sort of movie with nothing about it which makes it stand out from other movies about drugs and dealers. But the performance of Richard Coyle as a man under pressure is where the movie is at its best.


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