OVER HIS forty year career, Brian Cox has become one of the cinema’s most valuable character actors. His mere presence adds some fire to even the most unpromising title. It is all too rare to see him in a leading role which makes flinty, stylish British crime thriller The Escapist all the more welcome.

More Prison Break than Porridge, The Escapist begins with a group of prisoners making a frantic bid for freedom through a hole in the ground. The group includes tough guy Lenny (Joseph Fiennes), youngster Lacey (Dominic Cooper) and old lag Frank Perry (Brian Cox).

The film then doubles back on itself to reveal what is at stake for each of them, especially Frank who has received a letter from his wife informing him that their 20-year old daughter is caught in the grip of drug addiction. After fourteen years in prison, he is determined to break free.

Reminiscent of Memento in the way it plays with conventional narrative and traditional time lines, The Escapist is sometimes a little too clever for its own good as it fills in the details of allegiances, betrayals and the deadly rivalries within the prison population. The approach ultimately pays dividends as the sweaty urgency of the action sequences is balanced with an unexpected emotional intensity.

The Escapist has a strong cast that also includes Damian Lewis as brutal top con Rizza, but it is Brian Cox who dominates. He has the granite-like authority of a Jean Gabin, and invests his role with a steely determination and weary melancholy that makes his performance one to treasure.

Nationwide release

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Damian Lewis, Seu Jorge, Dominic Cooper, Liam Cunningham
Screenwriters: Rupert Wyatt, Daniel Hardy
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2007