Peaky Blinders, the film: Tommy Shelby as in 40 (review)
Cillian Murphy leaves the streets of Birmingham behind in a final chapter drunk on parables. Simple but powerful.
1919-1940. The adventure of Peaky Blinders close the loop with The Immortalan event film which is released this Friday, March 20 on Netflix to close (permanently?) the Shelby book. A family scarred by the First World War, and still haunted by the trenches as Europe plunged into the Second. A grand finale in the form of a swan song, grandiose and overwhelming.
The plot, however, is relatively summary. A fairly simple, almost minimalist thread, which serves above all as a pretext to bring back half a dozen emblematic figures from the original series (like Ada played by Sophie Rundle or Stagg by Stephen Graham). We are in the middle of the Second World War: the Battle of Britain is raging, Birmingham is under bombs, and, behind the scenes, an insidious operation led by the Nazis aims to inject millions of pounds in counterfeit money to weaken the British economy. Far from chaos, away from the world, Tommy Shelby now lives as a hermit. He writes his memoirs, at the bottom of the abyss, tormented by his demons, obsessed by the past and incapable of projecting himself into a meaningless future.
He’s a broken, almost ghostly figure who wanders through the first half hour. But defeating the Nazis – and a deliciously evil Tim Roth – is a valid reason to get back into the business. Especially since his son is seriously starting to slip up in the streets of the north of England…
The face-to-face between dad Cillian Murphy and his offspring Barry Keoghan is one of the great pleasures of the film. A tense tango between two azure eyes that pierce each other to the rhythm of a rock’n’roll production. Steven Knight’s script unfolds its story of transmission and cursed paternity without asking too many questions. The idea of the inheritance of Peaky Blinders runs through the entire film like an existential angst. A testamentary obsession that leaves little room for surprises.
Basically, everything was thought out to build a triumphant scene for Cillian Murphy. His Tommy Shelby takes on the appearance of a Christ-like figure, crossing Birmingham like a specter on the back of a horse, between myth and decline, almost a demi-god who literally advances towards his own end. With this film, Murphy arrives at the end of the Stations of the Cross. He can say goodbye to the most significant role of his career (yes, even taking into account Oppenheimer and his Oscar).
And everyone will be able to come and watch the procession: you don’t really need to have seen the series to understand the film, which easily fills in the blanks and ties up the wagons – even if certain emotional resonances will necessarily escape the uninitiated.
The main thing remains: The Immortal offers a real sense of finality. The conclusion long awaited by the faithful of Peaky Blinderswhich followed the messianic destiny of Tommy Shelby for nearly 15 years, 6 seasons and 36 episodes.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal, March 20 on Netflix.
