Though The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman was originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2013, it won’t be getting it full UK release until the end of the year. As bizarre as it sounds the movie is sort of a romantic comedy, but as the name suggests things get a whole lot rougher than the average Hollywood rom-com.
The film stars Shia LaBeouf (Lawless) in the title role as Charlie Countryman, with support from Rupert Grint (Harry Potter and the Postman Pat Movie) as his friend Carl and the psychopathic visage of Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) as his on screen nemesis, Nigel. Evan Rachel Wood (The Ides Of March) plays LaBeouf’s love interest, Gabi, James Buckley (The Inbetweeners Movie) stars as another of his friend’s, Luke, and Melissa Leo (Oblivion) plays his mum.
The story hinges on Charlie (LaBeouf) meeting and falling in love with Romanian girl Gabi (Wood) on a trip to the bustling city of Bucharest. However, Gabi comes with the baggage of her deranged, bad-ass Romanian mob head-honcho husband Nigel (Mikkelsen) who doesn’t take kindly to Charlie’s efforts to “save” his wife from the underworld life she has. While the name isn’t exactly fearsome, for anyone that’s seen Casino Royale you’ll know how oppressive Mikklesen can be on screen.
When things get tough, Charlie comes to the conclusion that the only way to save Gabi is for him to embrace death and so the film flips into a grizzled, desperate track.
The trailer doesn’t really tell us a great deal, which is kind of for the best, and while it looks pretty fatal towards the end, we doubt that this is the death hinted at in the title of the film. With John Hurt (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 2011) narrating the movie, it’ll have a steady voice to calm the swaying ship of the left-field storyline.
The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman has been scheduled for a full cinematic release date in the UK on the 8th November 2013. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out with such a mix of comedy, action and violence all rolled up in a romantic blanket on the dangerous side of the tracks in Bucharest. Moby scored the film so there’s bound to be an accompanying electro techno ambiance to soundtrack, building on the music in the background to the trailer.
