By Joe Pudas
The Daily Cardinal
When actors are associated with sissy characters, they usually take the initiative to distance themselves from it and pursue a role that will appeal to the fellas as well. Ryan Phillippe proved himself capable of being a badass in the hilarious 'Way of the Gun,' and Orlando Bloom tried his damndest to play tough in this summer's brutally boring epic 'Kingdom of Heaven.' But the most jarring bids for masculinity by a less-than-macho celebrity has to be Elijah Wood's turns in 'Sin City' and now 'Green Street Hooligans,' a vicious, compelling film about rival football firms in England.
Wood is not playing a mute, cannibalistic serial killer this time'Matt Buckner is a nerdy scholastic achiever. He is in his senior year at Harvard when he gets kicked out of school for taking the fall for his politically-connected roommate's cocaine stash. He goes to London to stay with his sister Shannon (Claire Forlani) and her husband Steve, where he immediately meets Steve's younger brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam). In the understandable interest of wanting to bed Shannon, Steve unwisely sends Matt off with Pete to go to the football game.
After Matt's pathetic attempt to fight him off, Pete becomes intrigued by this wussy outsider and decides to indoctrinate him into his world of soccer (or, if you don't want your ass kicked, call it football) hooliganism. Pete is the head of the West Ham firm ('firm' is a term for hooligan fan gangs), which we are told is one of the top firms in London, and it isn't long before Matt gets into his first real tussle. With Pete as his Tyler Durden, Matt is invigorated by the dangerous combat and becomes as restless and bloodthirsty as the rest of his often unintelligible Cockney pals. Wood nails the transformation from soft Yank to spirited street fighter, and his babyfaced looks render the intense combat scenes even more disturbing.
With an actor like Wood in this role, 'Green Street Hooligans' provides an astute look at man's acceptance of his violent nature; one which is even more fascinating than David Cronenberg's look at the much manlier Viggo Mortensen's violent dilemma in 'A History of Violence.'
It is Wood's accomplished performance and his interplay with the suitably fierce Hunnam that feel organic and sincere, not the thunderously obvious subplots (which involve a fellow hooligan's jealousy of Pete's violent mentoring of Matt and Steve's secretive past in the firm) that co-writer/director Lexi Alexander decided to shoehorn into her debut. Unsurprisingly, it's the frenzied, unsparingly ferocious fight scenes that make 'Green Street Hooligans' such bloody entertainment, and Alexander isn't stingy with them.
She stages these fast and furious streetwise bouts with aplomb, making every crack and thud resonate in a way that her frustrating intrusions of half-baked melodrama do not. Alexander also occasionally saddles the film with an unnecessary voiceover from Wood, but for the most part, her superb pacing makes up for some of her dramatic limitations. After all, this is a debut, and while Alexander may have to iron out some of her tendencies towards contrivance, her fight choreography is clean and efficient.
Although 'Green Street Hooligans' ends up traveling a pretty well-worn route to a routine conclusion, Wood's conviction and the forceful exhilaration of the ass-kickings overcome its weaker aspects.
With its colorfully dreary images of a grimy London, the film could have come off as an English 'Fight Club' knockoff, but overall, this is a gripping story of sports fans who are even more hardcore than the worst hockey dad.
