High-Rise

HIGH-RISE

Director : Ben Wheatley

Year : 2016

Genre : Thriller

Rating : ****1/2

Ever since it's publication in 1975, numerous attempts have been made to bring J.G Ballards socio-satirical novel 'High-Rise' to the big screen - all to no avail. Most famously, Nicholas Roeg, the director of 'Don't Look Now' and 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' was hired to helm a big budget adaptation of the book but funding fell through and David Cronenberg's highly controversial 1995 adaptation of Ballard's other masterwork 'Crash' was ultimately produced instead.

Now, 31 years after its initial release, 'High-Rise', a book that many thought was unfilmable, is finally given the cinematic treatment courtesy of British cult director Ben Wheatley, the hugely talented man behind such recent unique classics as the comedy/slasher 'Sightseers' and the hallucinogenic civil war set horror 'A Field In England'. Brilliantly written for the screen by regular Wheatley collaborator Amy Jump and featuring an all star cast including Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Keeley Hawes, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and returning 'A Field In England' star and one quarter of The League Of Gentlemen Reece Shearsmith, 'High- Rise' is an ambitious, thrilling, poetic and sometimes hilarious adaptation of one of the most incendiary novels of our time.

Set in a vaguely futuristic 1970's, 'High-Rise' predominantly takes place in the eponymous luxury skyscraper in which the middle and upper classes of society have been fractiously co-inhabiting - much to the delight of architect and fellow tenant Anthony Royal (beautifully played by a slithering Jeremy Irons) who foolishly sees the towering monolith as a "crucible for change". It is into this doomed crucible that Tom Hiddleston's brittle yet debonair Dr. Laing enters - a "Very Byronic" prescence who moves into the building as, in his own naive words, an "investment in the future". At first, the great block holds great promise and hope but as the inequalities between the poorer families of the lower floors and the upper classes of the higher floors begin to raise their ugly yet inevitable heads, the stage is set for total societal catastrophe as the very foundations of civilisation begins to collapse and the tenants turn to murderous recrimination.

As is the case with every one of their productions, Wheatley and Jump perfectly blend the utterly horrifying with a stream of jet-black humour, this time to startlingly visceral and volatile effect. Shot with a level of almost Kubrickian efficiency by cinematographer Laurie Rose, the titular tower takes on a menacing and imposing personality of it's own, a claustrophobic edifice of distinctively decadent beauty and stature that hides the eternal labyrinth of wonderfully designed corridors, rooms, supermarkets and other conveniences (all masterfully conjured by production designer Mark Tildesley) which ultimately serve as the unlikely battle ground for dystopian anarchy. The violence itself is, in typical Wheatley fashion, raw, relentless and at times, genuinely repulsive; something which may come as a shock to those expecting the more gently satirical rage of Ballard's work - the lyrical words of the novel have become superseded by slow motion, almost voyeuristic  shots of falling bodies and Tom Hiddleston greedily munching on the barbecued leg of a beloved pet dog.

Hiddleston is absolutely superb in the central role of the increasingly erratic Laing - a figure of both external calm and internal pandemonium and whose middle class sensibilities quickly surrender to the decadent power and filthy lucour inherent in the lower floors of the building. In stark contrast, Luke Evans plays a vicious documentarian who appears to be the physical manifestation of the many primitive urges of the lower class tenants, a seething cauldron of rage whose actions serve as the catalyst for chaos. Sienna Miller is also very good here as Laing's seductive neighbour Charlotte while Reece Shearsmith is delightfully unhinged as Nathan, one of the more eccentric inhabitants of the monstrous skyscraper.

Hypnotically underscored by Clint Mansell as well as the droning strains of Portishead's morose cover of ABBA's S.O.S, 'High-Rise' sees Ben Wheatley fully establish himself as one of our countries most unique and indeed brutal directorial talents. Through both his totally individual eyes and the terrifically scabrous words of both Jump and Ballard himself, the pages of this most subversive of novels are bought to the screen in typically bizarre and utterly compelling fashion. But while the film is in itself a purposefully alienating masterwork of direction, acting, screenwriting and cinematography, it must be noted that during these darks days of recession, strikes and riots, the ominous verses of 'High-Rise' are just as pertinent and as portentous as they were back in 1975 - a very unwelcome and somewhat horrifying message indeed.