The goal was to watch mostly horror this October, but I Came By is kinda sorta horrific in its own right. It’s certainly very, very dark. And quite disturbing, too.
To be fair, the darkest, most disturbing, and by far most horrific thing about this movie is that it takes The Earl of Grantham aka Sir Crawley of Downton Abbey and turns him all kinds of evil. I mean, here he is, leaned out and tanned, as another Sir, this time a respectable well-known judge with impeccable track record, and a secret. Or more like a hobby. A murderous hobby. And he gets away with it until he is targeted by a local graffiti artist duo on a mission to tag up the wealthy and make them feel unsafe in their own (insanely expensive) homes. The duo separates shortly after…because one of them didn’t know how to use protection and is going to be a dad. But the other graffiti rebel is still at it and he just can’t seem to leave the judge alone. This character is played by peculiar fishy (once Danish prince) George McKay, who parkours and decorates like a pro, except that all he ever does is the same tag that reads (very stylistically) I Came By. So, no Banksy, but still, the guy has a mission. Otherwise, he a perfect loser, who at 23 has no job, no plans, still lives with his mom, and unleashes all of his teen-like angst onto the beleaguered woman (played by the always lovely Kelly McDonald). But this one thing with the judge he just can’t let go off, and eventually he drags his mum and his best mate into the mess too. And…I can’t say any more than that without giving away crucial plot details. So, since this is mostly a suspense thriller does it work as such? Yeah, mostly it does. It’s nice enough visually, well acted, and tends to shy away from cutesy prepackaged easy solutions. And conventional happy endings. But the main draw here is Bonneville who at long last gets to stretch his acting muscles and go as sinister as all get out, quickly switching his easy-going posh charm into menace and back. The movie itself appears to have a message and a strong social conscience, but the class differences and assault on privilege and all that tend to be steamrolled under the actual goings on of the movie. McKay’s Toby isn’t a sort of rebel one can get behind, because he’s too much of an angsty ass. His best mate has more of a backbone to his character but he isn’t featured as heavily or as centrally. And the mother storyline is just purely horrific…from learning about her son’s secret life to stepping into it. So the overall effect isn’t as clear and precise and message-driven as it might have meant to be. But overall, it’s entertaining enough, so, you know, come on by.
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