Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman (2007)
Tomatometer
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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.
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,... [More]
Starring: Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, James Corden
Director: Adrian Shergold
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Reviews for Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 C+ |
Plodding biopic. Full Review |
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 3.5/4 |
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 |
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A suitably sombre treatment of a sombre story, Pierrepoint is nevertheless a riveting drama, sketching out not only the salient facts of Albert Pierrepoint's life but the turmoil in which that life caused in his soul Full Review |
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6/10 |
Albert Pierrepoint single-handedly killed over 450 people in his career, dispatching most of them with an icy precision in less than 30 seconds. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Spall is more than worthy of future leading roles. Full Review |
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C+ |
Overdramatizes Albert's 24-year career. Full Review |
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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 |
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2.5/4 |
Grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting. Full Review |
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The movie grows more compelling in the latter half as British public opinion turns against capital punishment and Pierrepoint begins to have his own doubts. Full Review |
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B+ |
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 |
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A genuine and skillful account of one of Britain's most morally ambiguous working-class characters. Full Review |
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B |
...a powerful pairing of work by two terrific actors [Spall and Stevenson]. Full Review |
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3/4 |
The very title of this movie seems to message its doom. What could possibly be dramatic enough about Britain's last hangman to carry our interest over a 90-minute film? A whole lot, it turns out. Full Review |
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4/5 |
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 |
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3/4 |
[The film's] grittiness instantly adds to the historically and socio-economically convincing picture of working-class Yorkshire in the last century. Full Review |
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3/4 |
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 |
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3/6 |
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 |
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The shot angles, the gray look of the film as a whole and Timothy Spall’s spectacular and understated performance as Pierrepoint make this one of the most powerful anti-capital punishment films I’ve seen. Full Review |
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C |
Handsomely crafted and well-acted, but its sense of scale is as constricted as a noose. Full Review |
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3/4 |
It's Timothy Spall who really carries the film. Full Review |
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