It’s a thankless enough task to adapt a masterful classic novel into a movie. But to do it when that novel has already been turned into a masterful classic film? We should at least give Rowan Joffe credit for taking a risk — even if his version of “Brighton Rock” doesn’t approach the achievement of its two predecessors. “Brighton Rock,” Graham Greene’s first masterpiece, was published in 1938 and set in that decade, as was the 1947 film starring a young Richard Attenborough. Joffe has chosen to update the action, to 1964. Pinkie Brown (Sam Riley) is a Brighton hoodlum making his mark on a gang that’s just lost its leader. As the film opens, the gang murders the man responsible for their boss’ death. Attempting to escape his fate, he tries to befriend a young woman getting some air — unfortunately for her. She gets a good look at the doomed man and the gang members that drag him away.
So the next day, Pinkie takes tea at Snow’s, where Rose (Andrea Riseborough) waitresses. He insinuates himself into the life of this innocent, going so far as to marry her to prevent her testimony from sending him to the noose. God, the figure to whom Roman Catholics Pinkie and Rose pray, might be slow to dispense justice. But Ida Arnold (Helen Mirren) is more determined. The good-time girl saw the man just before his murder and knows Pinkie is somehow responsible.
