Down and out, homeless Danny is trying to go through one more Dublin night in his tent by the river as three young men approach him, they record on a mobile their mockery. Still, Danny has too much when they try to make him accept a coin while being filmed. Once his sense of self-worth kicks in, leading Danny to refuse it, and the trio of hyenas brutalize him in a scene that is nihilistic, debasing and disturbing as are the conditions of those in the margins of society and ‘Amongst the Wolves’ captures it so well that this revenge thriller also has a start of what could be a deep thought drama giving more to the genre than it is seen on the VOD fare as it has aspects of social drama and coming-of-age stories.
Danny is played by Luke McQuillan, who brings a passionate and credible performance to the story that he also wrote. Danny is an Afghanistan war veteran who lost his marriage, the custody of his child and his pride after a house accident and befriends teenager Will (Daniel Fee), a puppy-eyed member of Dublin’s underworld who is living on the woods after failing to pay his debts to the local kingpin, the feared Power who is played by the astonishingly talented Aiden Gillen, who is known for incarnating Littlefinger in ‘Game of Thrones.’
Gillen comes as a perverted Peter Pan leading a pack of lost rabid cubs, as ‘Amongst the Wolves’ serves as a coming-of-age story for Will, whose vulnerability makes him somewhat likeable. Without condescending speeches, ‘Amongst the Wolves’ briefly touches on the social dilemma that impoverished children look up to local criminals and see in illegality a way for a better life.
The first part of the picture is a slow burn, a character study of Danny, who struggles with PTSD and the shades of homeless life as he tries to find places to sleep, receiving help from social workers, presenting himself appropriately to his son while dealing with a wife who has her side of not wanting him around.
By the start of the movie, Danny picks up football boots and cleans them as best he can. We find them later wrapped up as a gift to his son, who still has the naiveté of small children, and doesn’t look to know where they were bought or which brand made them, a reminiscence of sweeter and less consumerist Christmases. These scenes mark that McQuillan is a competent drama writer, which is enhanced by the talented child actor.
The revenge thriller aspect is evident in the behaviour of the hoodlums and the skill of director Mark O’Connor, who is also a co-writer, having experience in capturing Dublin’s underbelly, as seen in ‘Cardboard Gangsters’. The cinematography proves to be an asset as the night colours and shades become characters in the picture, and the camera shoots the characters as wolves hunting after dark, adding another dimension to the city and distinguishing it from the dullness of daytime Dublin.
Although there are criminal elements and activities during daytime with drug dealing, threats and stalking, it is at night that punishment comes not sparing neither the bad, the good, nor the innocent, which, allied with the cast, makes these characters more believable. Gillen’s Power could be a descendant of Littlefinger with a larger-than-life bravado and dog-hating tendencies, but the underworld of capital cities around the globe has tales that are too outlandish for the ordinary person to believe, but not for those used for police reports or investigative journalism. Power is a small kingpin who got high on his own delusions, which makes him unhinged.
‘Amongst the Wolves’ delivers what is expected of a revenge thriller by its satisfying ending scenes, as Danny shows veteran combat expertise and strategy, delivering violence to those who perpetrated it against what was once a peaceful community. It is also through this performance that the main character, who seemed like an everyman at the beginning of the story, shows how capable those who go through military service can be, while not forgetting issues like PTSD, depression, anxiety, and being forsaken by a nation after bleeding for it. ‘Amongst the Wolves’ has more depth than usually seen in revenge thrillers or VOD products and is a valuable step for the writer and actor who is McQuillan.
