Deviation - *

Directed by J.K. Amalou. Starring Danny Dyer, Anna Walton, James Doherty. Thriller, 86 min.

In Cinemas on 24th February 2012. DVD/Blu-Ray Release 27th February2012.

It was a bold idea for writer-director J.K. Amalou to take perpetual Cheeky-Cockney-Chappie Danny Dyer out of his comfort zone and cast him as a psychopath at the heart of a largely two-handed entry in the stuck-in-a-car-with-a-nutter sub-genre. Sadly, given that Dyer’s idea of expanding his “range” is to part his hair and occasionally speak in would-be threatening random rhyming couplets (“You’ll be dead with yer head hangin’ by a thread…”), there is no chance DEVIATION will pose a threat to the two great stuck-in-a-car-with-a-psycho movies written by Eric Red: namely, THE HITCHER and COHEN & TATE.

DEVIATION unfolds in a bizarre alternate universe London where the streets are as quiet at 6pm as they are at 11pm. It’s a world where Dyer’s backstory just happens to be explained at the exact moment where the movie’s heroine switches on her car radio. He has escaped from Broadmoor, where he was serving a life sentence for murdering women and a notoriously vicious attack on a schoolgirl. Dyer has cunningly disguised himself by combing his hair down flat and obtaining a fake driving license in the name of Peter Parker. And, in the opening minutes of the movie, he abducts Nurse Anna Walton, threatening her with an “Algerian smile” and holding her hostage as he sets off on his own demented personal mission.

Walton, a princess in HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, fights a losing battle with the terrible script at the core of DEVIATION, but at least retains some semblance of dignity. Unlike Dyer, whose ridiculous, laughably mannered central performance exposes an actor way out of his depth essaying a character that should be intimidating and terrifying, but ends up being unintentionally comical. Veering rapidly from sobbing like a girl to stabbing a stranger to death in public to stopping off at a garage to buy his captive a sandwich and some chocolate, Dyer’s attempt at portraying an unpredictable figure of fear results in one of the worst performances by a well-known actor in recent memory.

In fairness, even if someone with the charisma and magnetism of Rutger Hauer might have struggled with a movie that loses all touch with credibility early on when one of the villain’s mates “from inside” inexplicably looks like he’s auditioning for some perverse 1983-set remake of TWILIGHT. Ludicrous plot developments reach a nadir when Dyer’s self-styled “biggest fan” turns up volunteering assistance, having spotted him at a petrol station. “You’re not like all these other wankers calling themselves gangsters and that…You’re my fucking hero” he grins, and it’s at this point you realise the movie is doomed.

Steven West

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