MovieChat Forums > 44 Inch Chest (2010) Discussion > Tom Wilkinson's character makes no sense...

Tom Wilkinson's character makes no sense (or purpose)

posted 11 years ago by Alfabeta
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All of Ray's friends are tough street smart men (or straight up gangsters) who support his revenge (except for Ian who couldn't care less either way). Tom's character is clearly a slightly introverted mama's boy, so when he too starts to support Ray to whack the guy without holding back in the slightest, his character stops making any kind of sense within the story structure. Instead of being the "angel on Ray's shoulder" (as stereotypical as that might be), this guy comes up almost as detached and cold as Ian's character (although Tom was very amused while they were all threatening the hostage, while Ian was only mildly amused). I guess Tom's character might be one of those guys who's always the butt of the jokes so he doesn't mind the hostage situation at all since he now gets a small chance to be the one who teases). Still, the most unused character (by the screenplay) of the bunch.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 11 years ago

In my experience, overgrown mama's boys, like henpecked husbands, actually tend to be quite vicious, because they have to compensate for being castrated at home by being tough and aggressive around their friends. So the fact that Archie (Wilkinson) is egging Colin on to kill his wife's lover isn't surprising at all. Archie is trying to make up for his softness at home by playing the part of a hard man (or at least hard man's accomplice) with his mates.

[–] Alfabeta 11 years ago

Yeah, that's true, and it makes me think that my problem is in fact with Wilkinson's performance and not the character itself. He (Wilkinson) simply seems/acts too "nice" to be that nonchalant and (un)interested in the torture scenes.