The Corrupted is a 2020 thriller about an ex-con trying to win back the love and trust of his family, seeking redemption in a web of conspiracy, crime, and corruption.
Liam McDonagh (Sam Claflin) got a bad start, as a kid walking in on his father after he’d been murdered by local underground crime boss and high stakes property developer Clifford Cullen (Timothy Spall), muscling folks out of money. Years later, after the 2012 London Olympics, Liam is now fresh out of jail, a good guy on a bad streak, happy to be free and see his young son and make amends with the kid’s mother (Naomi Ackie in a small but convincing turn). Out for revenge, Liam points his anger at Cullen, who has grown only bigger in the fifteen years since he ruined Liam’s life. Meanwhile, detective Neil Beckett (Noel Clarke) is on the case, connecting dots in bringing Cullen and his thugs to an end.
There’s a lot of plates spinning in director Ron Scalpello‘s well-made thriller, a dark and brutal effort that tosses a lot at the audience in building its rather blunt story. It’s packed with violence and grit and the worst of mankind, which leaves it pretty unpleasant for most of the runtime, led by Cullen and his protracted evil-doings, much of which involve ghastly bits of torture and myriad opportunities for him to grimace and offer up deadpan comebacks. To believe that a guy this immersed in his own foul deeds and still be as publicly respected in the political machinations of London is a stretch to say the least, but Spall is a terrific actor and embraces the lunacy of it all with some determination that gives the production more room to breath than it seems worthy of.
Claflin does what he can with the rather familiar role, an ex-con turned to boxing in climbing the rungs to redemption, caught up in a mess of horrors that find him trying to save his family. Claflin is a definitely a strong presence but there’s little about the character that has any weight, a guy with no room to grow as he’s forced down a well worn path we’ve all seen before. Fortunately, there’s also Clarke and Charlie Murphy, playing his female partner, the two creating a sturdy police duo that really should have had more screen time and are so interesting, it feels like the movie missed an opportunity in making this their story rather than Liam’s.
Either way, The Corrupted is a well-directed and produced film with a gruesome style that tries to harken back to the good ol’ days of boots on the ground punch-to-the gut movies of say Brian De Palma or even Sam Peckinpah. It doesn’t quite have the legs it feels stocked ready to deliver, an odd overall sense of incompleteness to it that holds it back, but there’s plenty in the corners to make it a solid rental.