Review of Dead End

This trash, which was given an equally meaningless title "False Pretense" for Australian television, could have been very good. To start with the leads are played by two excellent actors Eric Roberts and Jacob Tierney - and their sensitive portrayals of father and son make some scenes quite powerful. But then the cliches start to pile up and the plot becomes ludicrous. The cops are stereotypes, the prostitutes are stereotypes (all with hearts of gold of course), and there is a particularly offensive portrayal of a gay man that puts the work of the gay movement back 20 years. This man's attempted seduction of Tierney is so offensive to our hero Roberts that he beats the man savagely to the ground and kicks his head in with his boot. And of course later suffers no remorse (because the "f....t" deserved it?!?!).

The happy families conclusion is so absurd that any good work done by the actors is completely undermined. Shame, everyone, shame. Please someone give Roberts a really great role in a great film so we can see the old "Runaway Train" magic again.