Days Of Grace review

A cop, a hostage, a wife and three stories of survival

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Swaggering down mean streets previously occupied by Elite Squad and various Ringo Lam skull-crackers, Everardo Gout’s Mexican crime epic starts with a bracingly stylised snarl and ends in a muddle.

Covering 12 years linked by three footie World Cups, the frantic action subjects idealistic cop Lupo (Tenoch Huerta) to a hell of torture, corruption, drugs, gangsters and overripe dialogue.

Coherence croaks as Gout dishes enough jump-cuts, whip pans and slo-mo assassinations to make Michael Bay look restrained, but the multi-handed mood music offers meaty compensations.

Freelance writer

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at 12DOVE.