During World War II, Tommy Shelby returns to a bombed Birmingham and becomes involved in secret wartime missions based on true events, facing new threats as he reckons with his past and rising national stakes.

‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ continues on from the events of the long-running BBC series, picking up with the Shelby family in the aftermath of the show’s final season and attempting to bring Tommy Shelby’s story to a more definitive conclusion. It leans heavily on the legacy of the series, assuming a level of familiarity with its characters and relationships as it moves the story forward, though I think this could work as a standalone film if you hadn’t seen the series (why you would want to do that is a different question though!).

I was never quite as taken with ‘Peaky Blinders’ as some were, and coming into this I suspected it might not fully land for me, which broadly proved to be the case. As a continuation, it feels like a fairly dull coda to the series, hampered by the absence of several long-standing characters and weighed down by a number of narrative choices that feel either underdeveloped or simply odd. There’s a sense throughout that it’s trying to manufacture a fresh story rather than build on what came before and it suffers as a result without the time a TV series gives to introduce us to key characters.

That impacts on the two central new additions. Tim Roth’s central villain, John Beckett, is a particular disappointment, largely one-dimensional and lacking the presence you might expect given some of his past performances in similar roles. The film never quite finds a compelling antagonist to match Tommy, which leaves much of the conflict feeling flat, even with the casting of Barry Keoghan as his off the rails son Duke (Keoghan replaced Conrad Khan who played the role in the sixth and final series).

Perhaps the biggest issue is that it often feels like an extended version of one of the series’ weaker episodes rather than a story that justifies a feature-length return. Tommy himself is absent for long stretches, or seen moodily living in isolation with only his thoughts for company, and while the film does improve when he re-enters the story, by that point my interest had shifted more towards wanting it to finish than actually caring about the outcome. For fans of the series there may still be something to take from it, but as a closing chapter it is a bit of an average and underwhelming finale.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Tom Harper

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, Ian Peck, Stephen Graham, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo and Barry Keoghan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt15574124/