London Road (2015) User Reviews

The Road Less Traveled

[Suradit · 4/10 · 7 October 2015]

Another reviewer referred to this as "astonishing." I suppose that can be taken several ways.

When I decided to watch this film I missed "musical" in the description and mistakenly assumed it was a murder docu-drama, rather than a crime docu-songfest.

I guess it could be described as innovative. It is allegedly based on a real event, the real words of those in the community, the reactions/implications of & for those in the locale affected by the murders and the subsequent investigations. As we are told repeatedly, people became suspicious of one another.

The question remains, is all of this something to sing about. The medium is the message or at least it influences how one feels about it all. For me it just seemed tedious and rather bizarre.

A Nicely Acted And Well Shot Musical... That Falls Flat Musically.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 5/10 · 22 June 2017]

This musical is based on the National Theatre stage production which is based on actual events that took place in London Road Ipswich.

In 2006, London Road had a problem with prostitutes who had moved into their street. Not only were the working girls touting for business but they were having sex in view of the residents. Then five of the women's bodies were found and one of their neighbours was charged and convicted of the offence. This is the story of the residents' thoughts and feelings during the incident and their attempt to recover from the stigmatism which was caused.

Musicals aren't my favourite type of movie though I did like the classics. Though the music and songs are more contemporary in this film. Unfortunately, it's that same music and songs that injure the film. I liked the idea of the songs encompassing and including the tenants' actual comments, however, there just isn't enough of them and the lyrics end up being repeated too much. This repetition is very annoying and nearly had me turning it off a couple of times. It would have been nice if Adam Cork, who composed the music, had spread his wings a little more as most of the songs are very similar and add to the monotonous feel.

Luckily the filming by director Rufus Norris is interesting and well crafted to suit the music and songs, as well as the narrative when you have the residents speaking. It's also these acting sequences that hold the film together as the are very well skilled at their craft. It's these elements and not the musical ones that make you relate to the characters and understand just what they were going through.

If it hadn't been a musical then I believe this would have been a much greater film.

If you like contemporary musicals this may be for you. If you're thinking about watching this for members of the cast - Olivia Coleman or Tom Hardy, be aware that they are not in this film for long. In fact, none of the cast is, and I like the movie more because of this. Each actors playing the residents appear to have the same screen time. Though, if you're a studying filmmaker or you're just interested in well-made and shot movies then I'd recommend this for you.

It's all kicking off........ummmmm....

[FlashCallahan · 5/10 · 12 October 2015]

If you've already seen this film, or rather, experimental remake of the musical, you will understand the summary line.....

The film documents the events of 2006, when the town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women.

The residents of the titular Road had struggled for years with frequent soliciting and kerb- crawling on their street.

When a local resident was charged and then convicted of the murders, the community grappled with what it meant to be at the centre of this tragedy......

Many have said that this film is a sick and twisted film, glamorising and turning murders into a musical. I say, see the film again, and you will see that no murders, no victims, or the murderer, are depicted in the film.

The film isn't about murder or murdering (some of singing is murderous on the ears though), it's about being part of a community, and coming together as said community at a time of distress, stress, and fear, and how different members deal with the situation.

I couldn't possibly comment on the musical, as I haven't seen it, but the cinema isn't the best medium for the story if the community, and at times it feels like a musical version of those creature comfort adverts merged with that Peter Sutcliffe musical skit Chris Morris did on Brasseye.

The cast are fine. Olivia Coleman is always fantastic to watch in anything, and the original cast of the musical are okay, but they look and feel uncomfortable not performing in front of an audience. And Tom Hardy pops up as a sinister sounding taxi driver AKA a red herring.

It's a shame that it's not as rewarding as it's intending to be, but that's the gamble when your making experimental cinema. It's definitely worth seeing, you may find it to be one of the best musicals ever made. But at times the film kept sending me back to Burtons Sweeney Todd.......which in my opinion is the best musical ever made.

But it never glamorises murder, so the people who say this is sick and twisted are wrong, and need to look further into a film when watching it. Think outside the box......

A cheerful take on a grim topic

[Gordon-11 · 22 July 2016]

This is a musical that presents what happened in the London Road community in Ipswich, after five prostitutes were murdered in that community within only ten days.

"London Road" tells the paranoia, shock and disbelief that the residents face, after the discovery of the murders. Then, there's a hunt for the killer, the subsequent trial and then, the community tries to rebuild itself. I didn't know it's a musical, so I was rather surprised to see people singing and moving in choreographed movements!

I particularly like the fact that the community rebuilds itself from the trauma, making themselves more united and resilient than before. There is a positive message out of the grim circumstances, and this film successfully captures this hopeful atmosphere in the rebuilding stage.

Is that singing? Are those lyrics?

[mancinibrown · 1/10 · 15 January 2018]

A musical about the inhabitants of a road where a serial killer murdered 5 prostitutes. Inappropriate? Maybe, but that doesn't mean it has to be bad. Just because subject matter is dark doesn't mean the end product can't work, That said, nothing in London Road works at all.

The writer of the musical decided to take the actual words of people interviewed after the murder, which is a neat concept. Until that is, you realize that includes every umm, erm, pause, stutter, etc. The lyrics needed to be cleaned up to actually fit to music. Which brings us to the point of the music. It's not musical, it's words spoken in an ALMOST sing-song-y way, but not quite. Every now and then some of the words are put to actual song, and it's... interesting, but still far from good.

The sad thing is that there probably is a strong story in there. Whether about the murders, the investigation, or the people affected by it, something could be told based off that. But not this. Never this.

very odd!

[paulapierce · 5/10 · 6 April 2016]

I decided to watch this as I knew about the story and thought it would be a drama about it.

I must have totally missed the 'musical' genre, which I have to say is a bit random, covering this terrible occurrence.

To be fair, there isn't much about the murders its mostly about the community and how they were affected by them and as a result they came together to create a better area.

The singing is a bit rubbish to say the least, however, having Olivia Coleman and Tom Hardy in the cast is a positive (sorry Olivia, singing isn't your strong point)

Extremely Odd Film About The Community Spirit & Resilience Of The People Who Lived Down The Same Road As A Serial Killer

[fionadp · 2/10 · 30 April 2017]

Making A Mockery Of Murder ~ This is a film about the Suffolk Strangler/Ipswich Ripper murders. Steve Wright is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five young women in Ipswich,Suffolk.The film focuses on the local community and how it pulled together and recovered from the shock of his grotesque spree killings. It features the real and unscripted words of the local residents put in the mouths of actors.It's presented in the form of a light hearted musical which is bizarre and slightly disturbing.These killings took place during the winter of 2006 which is only nine years ago - it's very insensitive for the film industry to exploit this tragedy & disregard the grief of bereaved parents in the pursuit of entertainment.

From surprise to intrigue to empathy

[rooak · 7/10 · 24 December 2019]

I found this startling at the beginning - a musical about the impact on a community of five serial murders, consisting of dialogue taken from media interviews conducted with neighbours of the accused murderer. But as the film progressed I became intrigued and, quite surprisingly, moved by this unusual documentary. The actors (especially Olivia Coleman) got the lilt of the original dialogue just right, and the music brilliantly melded the rhythm and innate musicality of the language into a diverse range of songs of many musical genres. Most moving, I think, was the song of the streetwalkers who had been most impacted and most sidelined in this tragedy.

Musical of Murder

[homerlvsbeer · 1/10 · 10 October 2015]

This is a musical about murder. i think its twisted and sick. almost like its normalizing serial killers. its a very twisted idea.

it starts like a documentary people sit down to talk to cameras. to talk about life on London road while these Ipswich murders took place.

i think the people who made this film are very twisted. I cant imagine how the family's of these poor girls are going to feel about a celebration of there deaths. cause after all. music is a celebration of something. Usually music is a celebration of life, in a way they are celebrating the deaths of these poor girls. and the suffering of these poor familys.

i don't find this innovative, it is astonishing and shocking. this is something that effected many peoples lives in a disturbing way. the whole of ipswich will have been effected by this. i think the last thing these people want right now is to create a musical about it. it is disrespectful and almost comes across like it is some kind of joke.

you don't sing and dance about murder.

these are real people real murders real peoples lives effected forever. mothers and daughters and fathers and sons.

i think the whole idea is almost immature. let these people get on with there lives. i seriously don't think they will appreciate this movie whatsoever. a musical about there lost daughters. a musical about vicious nasty killings of 5 poor girls. i really doubt anyone singing about it in Ipswich. this movie is disrespectful in such an astonishing way. its horrendous.

The Ipswich serial murders took place between 30 October and 10 December 2006, during which time the bodies of five murdered women were discovered at different locations near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. All the victims were women who worked as prostitutes in the Ipswich area. Their bodies were discovered naked, but there were no signs of sexual assault. Two of the victims, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell, were confirmed to have been killed by asphyxiation. A cause of death for the other victims, Gemma Adams, Tania Nicol and Annette Nicholls, was not established.

Would have been much better without the annoying singing! 3/10

[leonblackwood · 3/10 · 10 October 2015]

Review: This movie would have been 100 times better if it wasn't for the annoying singing. This storyline really needs to be told properly because it shows how a community can pull together after such an awful ordeal. Anyway, the film/musical is based on London Road in Ipswich were prostitutes are hanging around on the streets and spoiling the moral in the community. In 2006 the bodies of five of the prostitutes were found in the area which disrupted all of the London Road community and everyone was paranoid about who could be the serial killer. With the media and police officers camping out on the Street, the community struggled to get on with there day to day life's and when they finally find the culprit, everyone was on tender hooks to wait for the verdict. The community then come together to make there Road a nice place to live, by planting pretty flowers and fixing up there gardens. They also come together in the village hall to discuss community matters and have fun days like bingo with fish and chips. When Steve Wright, the accused, is finally sentenced to life, everyone is finally able to put the whole matter behind them but some of them were still scarred by the whole ordeal. I personally was interested in this movie because I know people who live near that area but I was really disappointed with the outcome. I know the play is very successful but from a film prospective, they really needed to cut the singing out. I liked the fact that they used the true words of people that they interviewed through that period and they even got the pronunciation correct, which I heard after listening to the interviews at the end of the movie but I don't understand why they had to sing the words. It made the situation seem more like a comedy than an intense time for the community who had a serial killer on the loose. I also didn't understand why they only put Tom Hardy in two scenes which were completely irrelevant to the whole film. Anyway, it's an uplifting movie which proves that a community pulling together can really change people's life's but the singing really got on my nerves. Average!

Round-Up: Although this film is about a serial killer, you never see any footage of Steve Wright or get an explanation on why he committed the murders, which is a shame. The only person that I really recognised in the whole film was, of course, Tom Hardy, who was only in a couple of scenes and Olivia Colman, 41, who became a household name, here in the UK, after the popular Broadchurch series. She has starred in a few movies like Confetti, Hot Fuzz, I Could Never Be Your Woman with Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd, Grow Your Own, Tyrannosaur, the Iron Lady, Hyde Park on Hudson with Bill Murray, I Give It A Year, Cuban Fury and Locke with Tom Hardy but she's mostly known for her appearances any many TV series. She has a movie called the Lobster coming out soon with Colin Farrell and she has won 3 BAFTA's out of her 5 nominations so she must be happy with her career so far. This film was directed by Rufus Norris who also brought you the great Broken with Tim Roth. I personally think that he was trying to keep as close as possible to the National Theatre hit which has sold out two times running but for entertainment on the big screen, I really just wanted to see the core of the movie without the terrible singing with repetitive lines. 

Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $216,000

I recommend this movie to people who are into their adventure/musical/adventure about a community in Ipswich who bring there road back to a livable standard after 5 prostitutes turn up dead in the area. 3/10

Great! But not for everybody

[firacious321 · 8/10 · 18 October 2015]

It's not really surprising how an experimental film like this got polarized reviews... The idea, like many said, to create a documentary musical about a real-life murder is absurd, but the execution for the film was great. Many negative reviews regarding London Road mainly criticized this film because this is "not something you should sing about" like bloody hell people, WE'RE IN THE 21ST CENTURY! But once you get past that, you should be able to view London Road without clouded judgement. There really are no standout numbers or standout performances, which is what makes it great, considering it's a musical film about community (not the murder itself, really). The music is complex, but once the ensemble sing as one, it sounds beautiful. The lyrics taken from recordings in real life may be a bit annoying, but they sound quite natural with the characters singing them. The direction, production design and cinematography also surpass many films from Hollywood. Of course, it is for the viewers to decide, but you can't judge it until you've watched it.

Irritating

[reneab3 · 2/10 · 22 July 2020]

I can see how this might appeal to some for it's unique approach.... but I couldn't see it through to the end. Now I love a musical, don't get me wrong, but this was just irritating. I just wanted to know the story!! The way they kept singing the same line, or in this case, local comments, just dragged the whole thing out. I didn't have the patience for it, I'll just google and read the outcome of this true story there instead.

Out of Tune

[dcarsonhagy · 1/10 · 12 April 2017]

Perhaps people know something about film that I don't. Given these "10" ratings that I have seen, it leaves me even more perplexed as to how ANYONE could be entertained by this big old turd.

Billed as starring Tom Hardy (one of my favorite actors), I caught this On Demand. Talk about false advertising... Mr. Hardy may frequent the screen for about TWO minutes. That's all you'll ever see of him. Instead what you get is a quasi "musical". Well, not really a musical as just so much of an ENTIRE movie delivered in sing-song style. That's how 99% of the dialogue is delivered. I thought this was a little odd, but after about five minutes of this s**t, it is like listening to nails across a chalkboard.

Supposedly based on actual events, this mess is about actual murders of prostitutes on London Road in England. On Demand should be ashamed for advertising this film the way they do, but I guess anything to make a buck, huh?

I absolutely despised this movie because I felt duped from the beginning. It stinks, plain and simple.

Tom Hardy?! Oh that guest appearance!

[hijabagha · 5/10 · 21 April 2017]

Overall, I liked the movie but why the hell would they put Tom Hardy's face on their main movie poster when he really isn't a main cast member. They did not let the camera show him throughput the movie, except for one very short scene and then a slight glimpse afterwards, which actually seems like a residue of a scene cut-out of the movie. To be honest, I decided to watch this movie, thinking it has such a great actor in it, so it has to be good. But sheer disappointment struck me when I realized that I had become a victim of cunning (yes, I will use such a harsh word) advertising.

Besides the Tom Hardy thing, however, the movie was quite a different one, kind of a very casual musical and I kind of liked it.

Killing with the singing

[Prismark10 · 1/10 · 5 March 2017]

One of the complaints about La La Land was that many of the songs in the musical were unmemorable, but there was that cover version of Take on Me!

London Road about the 2006 murders of 5 prostitutes in Ipswich was turned into an experimental stage musical by the National Theatre.

The cast of actors repeat words spoken by the residents of Ipswich given to the film's writer, Alecky Blythe after the murderer was captured. The film might had been better if it stopped there. However it is a musical and people start to sing but the songs are tuneless dirge.

I lost all interest in the film and I felt bad for the victim's families.

Shocking

[carollaw51-41-56256 · 2/10 · 16 March 2017]

I was really shocked by this film ,it showed no empathy for the victims or their families and came across as callous and cold hearted. This sort of story should be kept as a documentary or court case film.Not a musical where some of the characters are even laughing and joking about. What bad taste,if this was made about Jack The Ripper set in 1889 it would still be bad taste a century later. These Ipswich victims were five vulnerable young women and considering none were sexually assaulted we can only assume they were just easy targets,no motive has ever been established it was unfortunate for them that they all knew and trusted Steven Wright,after all he was probably like other serial killers enjoying the fear and publicity he had created. Who is to say he wouldn't have murdered five office women or cleaners etc if he had the chance? These women were still humans and deserve to RIP , All the way through i couldn't help thinking about these poor families of the victims and how they must feel about this film. Instead the film sympathises only with the local community and their plant growing show,is this really more important?and even goes as far as the locals rejoicing that they have no more soliciting which could have been shown in a more tactful way. I live not far from Ipswich and i must say have never met anyone from Suffolk who acts like the people portrayed in this film,im sure they cant be happy with this film.

Astonishing

[marklear-1 · 8/10 · 14 September 2015]

Yes, if like me, you see this film without knowing anything about its content and presentation, you should find it astonishing. As you can see from the plot summary in IMDb above, the story is a true one, in Ipswich in Britain, where five murders occurred not that many years ago. These events were then taken up by the National Theatre, and now as a film. There are a wide range of characters in the street (London Road) and they all have their own words used to make the dialogue. However, it is the presentation and delivery of the story that makes this film so riveting. My only reservations were the handling of two of the central characters which seemed a little far-fetched, but these are minor quibbles in a film which will be very differently delivered on the screen from what anyone would expect. Some of the imagery in the crowd scenes is especially noteworthy. Definitely recommended for art-house film fans, and the large crowd in Melbourne at the screening I attended seemed to be most impressed by its audacity.

Tom Hardy..

[ghadeerwaleed · 3/10 · 20 June 2020]

When I saw Tom Hardy in the poster I thought he'd be a main character But he appears only 2 times(less than 10 minutes)!!!

A new way of telling a story - both frightening and inspiring.

[chilly-42455 · 10/10 · 21 March 2016]

A brilliant film, startling in its originality. I had no knowledge of the murders or the stage production and was completely surprised by the "musical" aspect.

Bravo to all those involved in the creative process, development, history and productions that led to the staging and eventual filming of this amazing work.

In a sea of dross being produced on film "London Road" floats to the top and puts most to shame. Such originality should be celebrated and enjoyed by a wider audience.

Open your mind, put aside any preconceptions and enjoy the talent of the performers and creators.

Stunning, creative and honest.

[paulturnip2000 · 10/10 · 3 April 2018]

If you watch this film not expecting a musical I can understand the confused reviews. I don't find it disrespectful in the slightest, it's verbatim and represents the views and words of the people at the time. I saw London Road when it was at the National Theatre and it blew me away. This film captures everything I loved about that show. Not to everyone's taste, but undeniably creative, fresh and heaving with talent.

I loved every second of it.

A Unique Film Experience that I Won't Easily Forget

[TheDanishCinemaGoer · 8/10 · 7 October 2016]

I was the 1000th person to rate the film, so I see it fair that I also throw up a review. Firstly, you need to know that this film is not for everyone. Absolutely not! Don't be lured in by Tom Hardy or Olivia Colman. You should instead be lured in by the unique take on film genre and a much more 'abstract' method of telling a story.

This is a musical about a series of five horrible murders that took place on London Road. Every lyric, however, is also taken verbatim from an interview conducted with real people and you therefore get some very genuine-feeling phrases being turned into musical numbers.

This all very weird, but the chilling melodies and rhythms as well as the intense and gritty way it is sung is frightening and works wonders. The acting is also very strong, but the intense use of color (or lack thereof) in the production and costume design is what really sells the songs and thereby the film.

The story is not too captivating, and there are times when a musical motif is used a dozen times too many, but this film is definitely worth checking out if you are in the mood for watching something extremely different and bizarre.

The Birth of a New Genre

[reginamia · 8/10 · 29 November 2022]

It took me a while to watch this because the premise sounded just weird. But I love Olivia Coleman and Tom Hardy, especially in work they did before they became superstars.

What I did not expect was a surprisingly effective means of moving the story forward and engaging the audience on a visceral level. Whether it was the use of actual words from the incident, the Greek chorus style of spoken/sung words, the surprise recognition of expressions I myself might use in a similar circumstance, or the emotional build up generated when talking morphed into music...I just don't know, but it was powerful.

It feels like an invention of Stephen Sondheim, or perhaps the natural evolution from his work to something custom made for cinematic effect but that could certainly translate to the stage. A new way to connect with the audience.