Man Dancin'

OPIS

Director Norman Stone crosses Get Carter with Jesus of Montreal in this ambitious but leadenly symbolic gangland drama. Alex Ferns (best known as the wife-beating Trevor in EastEnders) is bristling with compassion and righteous anger as the ex-con who accepts the lead in priest Tom Georgeson's Passion play - his participation being a condition of his parole. But Ferns's former crime boss, James Cosmo, and bent copper Kenneth Cranham suspect his motives, and a modern-day tragedy that mirrors the trials of Christ unfolds. An improvement on many recent British crime flicks, this drama doesn't always avoid the genre's clichés. But its revelation of the relevance of Christ's social message to today's run-down urban communities is both bold and surprisingly powerful.