24 Little Hours is the latest film from writer/director Paul Knight and after 10 years of making films he’s gone back to his roots with a plot involving thugs, mugs and violence, all within the backdrop of gritty London town. DI Summers (Fiona Skinner) is a discredited police officer with a past of corruption and mistakes who is nevertheless tasked with getting to the truth behind a series of killings involving an ex-con with a grudge.

Told through a combination of police interviews, flashbacks and up to the minute scenes detailing the action, DI Summers is close to cracking the case. However, with a string of unreliable witnesses and superiors who don’t trust her to get the job done, Summers may have to do more than her job allows to bring the right people to justice.

Having spent 10 years making films, Paul Knight must have gathered quite a lot of experience in the British film industry. It’s just a shame that it comes across that Knight seems to think that he knows exactly what people want; clichés, stereotyped characters and a cast that don’t know how to act without going completely overboard.

The plot for 24 Little Hours is a little muddled and would take a lot of concentration for those who are just expecting a typical British gangster flick. However, this is less to do with the intricacies of the story, but more to do with the film spending too much time with the wrong characters. A list of characters who are either miscast, rely far too much on their deep, gravelly voices to sound menacing or have to wade through the dialogue which often relies on a degree in Cockney Rhyming slang.

Also, a lot of characters feel completely out of place, where there could have been a good actor with an interesting part, instead it feels like they were put in the film just to kill time.

However, it’s not all that bad and the film’s finale is where it really is at its best (and not just because the film is nearly over). Knight manages to create an atmosphere throughout that maintains that feeling of a dark, violent underbelly of London and the final pursuit for the killer is very well played out.

It’s just a shame that it took so long for 24 Little Hours to understand its strong points, forcing the audience to put up with bad dialogue, plodding story and a slow pace.

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