Harrigan

Harrigan is a crime thriller set in the early 1970s in the northern English town of Newcastle. Directed by Vince Woods, the film stars Stephen Tompkinson as the eponymous Detective Inspector Harrigan, a hard-nosed veteran cop who is tasked with cleaning up the city's streets from a criminal gang that has taken over in the wake of a decline in the area's mining industry.

Harrigan is a man of few words, and his tough exterior hides a haunted past that informs his aggressive approach to policing. His no-nonsense attitude earns him the respect of his fellow officers, but it also puts him at odds with his superiors, who are keen to avoid any further escalation of violence in the city.

The opening scene of the film sets the tone for what is to come, as a young boy witnesses a brutal gangland execution and is then chased down by the perpetrators. The violence is graphic and unsettling, and it sets the stage for the high stakes of the conflict that is to come.

As Harrigan investigates the murders, he finds himself drawn deeper into the criminal underworld of the city. He forms an uneasy alliance with a young informant named Jago (played by Ronnie Fox), who helps him navigate the complex web of rival gangs that control different parts of the city.

Along the way, Harrigan also becomes entangled with the wife of one of the gang leaders, a woman named Jennifer (Gillian Kearney) who is torn between her loyalty to her husband and her attraction to the world-weary detective.

The film is notable for its gritty realism and attention to detail in recreating the atmosphere of a working-class, post-industrial city. The bleak landscapes of abandoned factories and empty streets provide a fitting backdrop for the violent conflict that unfolds.

Stephen Tompkinson delivers a commanding performance as Harrigan, conveying the character's sense of moral obligation and inner turmoil with understated intensity. The rest of the cast is also strong, with Gillian Kearney bringing a nuanced complexity to her role as Jennifer and Ronnie Fox injecting the film with a youthful energy as the street-smart Jago.

The plot is well-paced and full of twists and turns, building steadily towards a tense and violent climax. The action scenes are well-executed, with a sense of brutality that is never gratuitous, and the use of location filming adds an extra layer of authenticity to the proceedings.

Overall, Harrigan is an effective and engaging crime thriller that delivers on its promise of gritty, hard-hitting storytelling. It's a film that will appeal to fans of the genre looking for a fresh take on the classic police procedural formula.