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Movies / On DVD / Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

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Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2007)

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Reviews Counted:50

Fresh:38

Rotten:12

Average Rating:7/10

Consensus: Director Adrian Shergold doesn't shy away from the darker elements of the movie's subject, and Timothy Spall is mesmerizing as the title character.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for disturbing images, nudity and brief sexuality

Runtime: 90 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Jun 1, 2007 Limited

Synopsis: Timothy Spall (Professor Pettigrew from the Harry Potter movies) gives a magnificently multilayered performance as the protagonist in PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN. Spall plays Albert Pierrepoint,... Timothy Spall (Professor Pettigrew from the Harry Potter movies) gives a magnificently multilayered performance as the protagonist in PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN. Spall plays Albert Pierrepoint, a grocery deliveryman who decides to apply for his father's old job--a hangman for the British courts. Soon he is perfecting the execution procedure, fulfilling his duties in record time and with no problems whatsoever. Though proud of his success, Pierrepoint prefers to keep it to himself, not even telling his wife, Anne (Juliet Stevenson), what he does when he leaves the house for days at a time. But when General Montgomery himself (Clive Francis) asks Pierrepoint to execute dozens of Nazis who have been sentenced to death, for the first time Pierrepoint starts questioning what he does, and soon his relatively calm, quiet world is turned upside down. Based on a true story, PIERREPOINT: THE LAST HANGMAN is a gripping period drama, bathed in grays by cinematographer Danny Cohen and production designer Candida Otton. Spall is mesmerizing as Pierrepoint, his slow walk and penetrating eyes filling the screen. Stevenson is excellent as his loyal wife, standing by him through thick and thin. PIERREPOINT is directed with careful precision by Adrian Shergold, a longtime actor and television director who trained at the feet of Mike Leigh, who has cast Spall in many of his own films. And Eddie Marsan excels as Tish, a compatriot of Pierrepoint's who lands himself in a very nasty bit of trouble. [More]

Starring: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, James Corden

Starring: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, James Corden, Christopher Fulford, Tobias Menzies, Tim Woodward

Director: Adrian Shergold

Director: Adrian Shergold
Screenwriter: Bob Mills, Jeff Pope
Producer: Christine Langan
Composer: Martin Phipps
Studio: IFC Films

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Release:

Oct 30, 2007

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Reviews for Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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A genuine and skillful account of one of Britain's most morally ambiguous working-class characters.

Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
06/18/07
Angela Baldassarre
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

Dark but absorbing.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
04/06/06
Ray Bennett
Ray Bennett
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A completely engaging film. It's all about performance, and Timothy Spall is riveting as the earnest hangman. If you're desperate for a movie that has nothing to do with sequels or product placement, look no further.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
06/15/07
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

An emotionally powerful drama about the dirty business of capital punishment.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
06/08/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Very much a bookend to Vera Drake in its mixture of post war British reserve and ugly reality. [Actor] Spall makes it work, creating a little man with big and terrible secrets.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
06/15/07
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

the end result feels like business as usual done by-the-book.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
06/07/07
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

Based on their press materials, they think they have made a film damning capital punishment and exploring Britain's most famous executioner. In fact, they haven't. But they have made a film of artistic beauty and endless fascination.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
07/10/07
Harry Chotiner
Harry Chotiner
culturevulture.net

...a powerful pairing of work by two terrific actors [Spall and Stevenson].

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
06/16/07
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
rec.arts.movies.reviews

There is a great deal of food for thought in a film that personalizes the effects of the death penalty on both the executed and the executioner.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
06/19/07
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Compelling, powerful filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
05/06/06
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Handles capitol punishment in a similar way that "Vera Drake" tackled the abortion issue ... allows Timothy Spall's resplendent dramatic chops to shine.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment Comment
05/29/07
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

The key to the film is in the performances by Spall and Stevenson -- and by Marsan. The utter averageness of the characters, their lack of insight, their normality, contrasts with the subject matter in an unsettling way.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
11/02/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Pierrepoint is worth seeing for Shergold’s attention to process and for all the ghoulish details.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
06/04/07
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Somewhere in this true story lies a grand statement about what taking lives for a living really does to a person’s moral compass. [Director] Adrian Shergold never quite finds it; his film dutifully recounts the facts but only skims the surface.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
06/09/07
David Fear
David Fear
Time Out New York

Shergold can't quite pull off tricky balancing act between understated working-class poetic miserablism, in the manner of acknowledged exemplar Vera Drake, and an issue-based melodrama's demands for a flashy third-act.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
04/06/06
Leslie Felperin
Leslie Felperin
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Director Adrian Shergold and screenwriters Jeff Pope and Bob Mills take certain liberties with the facts of Pierrepoint's notorious career, but only to offer better insight into his complex personality.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/01/07
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

What the film does have, however, is the courage of its dark convictions; it’s a bleak subject and, commendably, the director doesn’t shy away from it.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
05/06/06
Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Time Out

In the wrong hands this could have been capital punishment, but as a low key drama about one man's unique approach to life and other people's deaths, it's actually just, er, capital.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
05/06/06
Adrian Hennigan
Adrian Hennigan
BBC

As this sad, shambling antihero swings from one pole to the other on the issue of capital punishment, you are inclined to follow every step of the way toward his tragic enlightenment.

comment Comment
06/08/07
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The actors' understated performances, coupled with an underwritten screenplay, ultimately leave the audience dangling.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
05/06/06
David Hughes
David Hughes
Empire Magazine
 
 
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Latest News for Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman

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