It sort of seemed apt that on the day we heard of the death of Osama Bin Laden, we ended up watching a movie which would not have existed without him.
Matthew Hope's film surrounds a veteran from the war in Afghanistan which began when Bin Laden ordered the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Toby Kebbell is the former soldier who is finding it difficult to acclimatise to life outside of the Armed Forces.
Thus, the drugs gang which runs the estate on which he lives tries to sign him up but, instead, he opts to do surveillance work for a middleman, working for the Home Office.
Nothing, however, is quite what it seems and Kebbell's character discovers what he believes to be an appalling web of corruption.
By then, I am afraid I was past caring.
The storyline is horribly convoluted and goes off on that many tangents it is simply confusing.
By the end, I wasn't even sure who was on whose side.
I guess there is a bit of a message about how vets of Afghanistan are treated when they return to the UK.
Here, the veteran is still unable to hold his hand still following a particularly harrowing incident while on his tour.
But Kebbell is never entirely convincing as the former soldier and the other roles (the local gang leader, the kids on the estate, the suspected terrorists and their Russian minders) are just banal stereotypes.
The normally reliable Brian Cox does a turn but is on screen for a few short minutes and, therefore, has little impact.
If you are dropping off now you are in the same state I was while watching The Veteran.
Therefore, it gets a pretty miserable 4/10.
PS There was hardly anyone watching this on a Bank Holiday. Who gave it more slots than TT3d Closer To The Edge? I suspect they cost Cineworld a bob or two.
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