Paddy Considine did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Richard in Dead Man’s Shoes.
Dead Man’s Shoes follows a man returning to his hometown to seek revenge for the mistreatment of his younger intellectually challenged brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell).
The underrated Paddy Considine, though that seems likely it might finally be changing somewhat, has a most unusual role here both as a leading man and as the specifics of the role unravel/realize itself. As if you were to hear the basic description of the film you’d think Richard is a hero who is set to go about seeking a righteous revenge against those who wronged his brother, however you’d be dead wrong to take that view. The film takes an atypical approach as in a way it is as frequently from the perspectives of the idiotic villains who are sorta a gang, but more accurately a group of half wits who hang around in a small town. They in a way are granted frequently the more traditional human perspective, despite being obviously flawed morons, as the story unfolds. Considine on the other hand enters the film a bit like a pale rider as we see him walking with purpose towards the town. Considine’s physicality being key to the entirety of his work, as a fundamental brilliant choice. Considine’s march here is fascinating as the way he walks so enclosed within himself, yet so distinctly there is an innate intensity about it, even as Considine performs it with an ease where you don’t even second guess it. Considine presenting in just this walk a man with a mission, a man in a certain headspace and the history of the man who had just obviously come out of the army having seen more than a few things in his life.
The first action of his Richard is to enter the local pub, seemingly with his brother in tow, where he comes across Herbie, one of the least impressive of the impressive crew who comes into the bar. Considine’s stare down towards the man is the start of honestly one of the most terrifying performances I’ve seen which subverts many expectations because one he’s our theoretical hero and two what he technically is doing seemingly is right, yet how it proceeds ends up feeling wrong. Even in this as Herbie tries to play the tough guy by asking “What are you looking at”, Considine’s brilliant delivery of more than a rabid dog, rather a dog whose already sinking his teeth into a man’s jugular, of “you yah cunt” doesn’t just put the man at unease it puts us at unease as well. Considine sunken within his army uniform, and the wild eyed look that doesn’t lose a bit of his intensity as the man slinks away like a dog, fashions a kind of outsider of a figure, one that you’d pass by randomly in the less ideal part of a neighborhood, someone you know is dangerous and don’t want to have much to do with. This man though is a “hero” though, even as Considine plays with this notion again and again, in ways that knocks us off any easy sense of comfort just as it does with the men he is coming to terrorize.
After the exchange there’s a hint of a demented glee in Considine’s eyes, but not something that gives you any more comfort, even if there is the sense of a game of Richard. Something that we get quickly finds more layers to when Richard goes to the same man with an apology, where Considine performs it as a seemingly less harmful mentally not quite there man. Considine putting on the front for a moment though even within that there is this chaotic quality just beneath the surface of the act that denotes even this as part of the game to play with the men. Where we see Considine observing the men the danger of him becomes all the more evident, where there is an intention in his eyes, and even more this disturbing calm of a man conducting a specific military operation. The group of idiots eventually figure out who Richard is and their de facto leader Sonny (Gary Stretch) decides to take some kind of action against him. The first major confrontation scene being Sonny going up to Richard and trying to intimidate him. Considine is outstanding in this scene in the specific energy he creates where he takes disrespect to new levels as he barely looks at him. As Sonny tries to be the tough guy and I just adore Considine’s way of “taking in” the threats with the least serious essentially “oh you’re a big guy” disregard for every threat. There’s more though as Considine is basically burning from the inside out with his real intention barely something he can hold in. When he notes he's not threatening, Considine just speaks truth in a way violent promises are rarely made through a performance.
Considine’s clap back scene should be legendary as clap backs go, from just his way of indicating that Sonny is in his hand where Considine implements his intensity with such a ferocious specificity. Before then finally turning to Sonny and letting him know exactly what he will do. Considine brings the searing rage into every word of his insults to Sonny and you see more than anger, there is a fundamental hatred, however a hatred of the man as though he sees him as just filth he will be cleaning up soon enough. Something that quickly realizes itself as the idiots attempt to later confront him with some actual weapons, where Considine’s performance is just dismissive towards them even when they’re aiming a gun his way. Considine weaponizes the disrespect still towards the men, but within the action the glimpses of Richard’s insanity. As walks towards them welcoming any attack from them with a complete calm. Considine’s eyes are of a man in so many ways around the bend, and with that psychotic intensity, even if it is technically towards men who are seemingly deserving of this treatment. Where we take the next step in Richard’s plan and he goes for his revenge directly, and we find out what Richard is truly capable of.
But before that throughout the film we have various moments where Richard is spending time with Anthony away from the situation. Moments where they seem to reflect back on their lives and even just casually being with one another. Considine makes the absolute most of these scenes because while Considine is calm in a scary way in other scenes, here we see a man with some genuine calm in terms of his soul. Considine brings such a natural warmth in these moments where he speaks to Kebbell in a specific loving, wistful but also haunted way. Within the conversations Considine’s performance still has a weight of it, though here the weight of memory. His delivery has actual loving sense in it and you get the glimpse of a man appreciating life if just for a bit. Considine finds such a natural balance and poignancy in these moments however because he sets up the twist within them, while also hiding it. Which is that Anthony is dead before the film begins and Richard is talking to no one. What Considine shows in these scenes then still is the same demented state, but really the purer motivation of that state. As Considine is quietly heartbreaking in showing the quiet sincerity of what Richard did get out of the relationship with his brother, and more specifically why stripping that from him would be so fundamentally cruel. I love that Considine in no way makes it this perfect relationship, the differences between the two are still fundamental, but regardless it was pivotal for Richard’s connection to humanity.
Speaking of a lack of humanity, we follow Richard as he’s drugged the main members of the crew who were supposedly preparing to go kill Richard but are instead left in a daze. The sudden appearance of Considine among them is honestly terrifying when you see the intention in his eyes as Richard is nearly done playing with food and is ready to chomp down. There is visceral brutality within Considine’s work where he is unsettling just watch as he maneuvers around the scene more so as a personification of death stalking his next target. Within that we have a different side as he dispatches each man. Starting with Sonny where Considine shows the most blunt brutality of it all and there is the manner of the man as though he is just disposing of garbage he casually bags the man’s head before shooting him dead. When another of the men is dazed trying to leave in fear, Considine is unnerving in the rabid way he does grant the man leave, leave to die and the complete lack of hesitation within Considine’s work makes Richard horrifying despite technically killing bad men. This leaves only Herbie, and Considine somehow is even more off-putting as he smiles and puts on a little charm to pry information on the remaining member of the gang. Considine’s delivery is horrifying as the sense of the danger is ever present as even his “kind” way of speaking each word you see in his eyes that he is just letting the man on. Even showing the man another of his victims so matter-of-factly Considine emphasizes every bit of psychological torture to perfection. We see a man utterly in control in a way that as much as these were horrible men, Considine makes the vengeance as disturbing as their crimes. Particularly when Herbie is done telling him the info and Richard gives him a bit of hope saying he’d let him live. The switch in Considine from the fake smile to unbridled rage as he dispatches the man is such a chilling realization of Richard’s specific insanity.
With all the men dead Richard seeks the final man, Mark, who unlike the other men has not only moved on to start a family, but we see that Mark is a regretful onlooker who is filled with shame for what he was part of and failed to stop. And if somehow we were comfortable with our violent “hero” the rest of the film, the greatest challenge comes as we see Richard trying to prompt the man towards his own death. We even have a moment where he mocks Anthony seemingly to get Mark to mock him with him to enact the final step of his plan, however Mark stands firm in his regrets. Considine is truly amazing as we see Richard now unravel as he speaks of the situation openly to the man even admitting to becoming the monster to enact his vengeance. A careful contrast to a late brief flashback where we see Richard attending Anthony’s funeral, and Considine makes the most of the silent moment as you see such simple sadness in a lonely man. Contrasting what that sadness led to as we see Richard now wholly deranged, where Considine is all too believable in the wildly intense swings between his rage, sadness, shame and even self-hatred as he prompts Mark to kill him instead. Considine makes this moment heartbreaking and horrifying because every emotion is as natural as the next, but all in this complete mess where the man’s anguish has never been more tangible. Considine reveals the best and worst of Richard in this terrible dance of the man’s face as he’s racked with guilt, yet wholly broken by it all. Considine portrait of revenge is truly unlike any other. Where we have the qualities of the cool or badass hero. He is a badass, he has that violent calm many attribute to your usual revenge seeking hero. His intensity is equal to so many characters many often would find cool. What Considine does though is tip it that much further to create such a disturbing yet wholly human sense of the festering emotions and real psychotic rage needed for a man to take such a dark and unforgiving path. A performance of such visceral power which never sugarcoats any notion, instead forces you into a place of fear just to witness him.
