Murder: 'Joint Enterprise' (2012)

Short Television Film | Crime Drama | UK | English | 59m
Dir: Birger Larsen | Scr: Robert Jones | Ph: Lol Crawley | Prod: Kath Mattock | Mus: Paul Leonard-Morgan | Ed: Jacob Thuesen | PD: Mark Leese | AD: Caroline Grebbell | Cast: Karla Crome, Joe Dempsie, Stephen Dillane, Robert Pugh, Claire Rushbrook, Lara Rossi, Darren Campbell, Lauren Socha, Kate Donnelly

Composed of a series of brief, straight-to-camera monologues, this short BBC film explores the truth behind a grisly council flat murder. Told by the two accused, as well as a police officer, a barrister, the mother of the victim, plus one or two other interested parties, it plays on our prejudices as it unveils revelation after revelation, pulling our allegiances from one suspect to the next and back again. The performances are all excellent, as is Larsen’s precise direction and Jones's unpredictable teleplay – however, Thuesen’s editing, particularly early on, is perhaps a tad clichéd. Though, just what the man who directed the excellent Accused (2005) is doing editing things like this rather making his own films, I just don’t know.