Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

daworldismine this brilliant four part epic is a true masterpiece and a must see for anybody who likes gangland movies and TV series, the 1960's come alive here and you never question the era your in. but the best thing about the long firm is mark strong's portrayal of harry starks he's both charming and scary and one of the best performances iv'e seen in a British gangland tale, and him bieng homosexual is another great layer to this character that mark strong makes his own, the rest of the cast are great too, but this is mark strong's show and he owns it. the story is told from four peoples points of view, all recalling an event with harry starks that changed their life for ever. the writing is brilliant the directing top notch and the cast first rate, their is undeniably some inspiration from the krays here, and obviosly bieng set in the underworld expect some violence and swearing but its all done classy, thats what i love about the long firm its better than it thinks it is, a masterpiece and a must see

Oren Menache Fantastic!An authentic image of a gangster and a beautifully conveyed story. Brilliant acting; especially Mark Strong's emotional and moving character. A delicate balance of drama, thrill and violence. It's the plot that kept me watching till 3 O'clock in the morning. The four characters telling their own story in each episode is a marvelous film-noir touch. A masterpiece by novel writer, Jake Arnott, brought thrice as powerful by the conversion to visual which was done perfectly. Not a single boring moment, and not for one second does it lose it's authentic aura. A must-see series.

Elliott Payne I would like to disagree with any previous comments on The Long Firm. I think this is an outstanding drama. The BBC should invest more money into dramas of this quality instead of spending money on D.I.Y shows and 'reality' TV shows.Mark Strong's portrayal of Harry Starks reminded me Ronnie Kray, Reggie Kray, Charlie Richardson all rolled into one. He was excellent as the 'Torture Boss'. He was menacing and unpredictable but also you sort of saw him as a anti-hero if you like. The program has taken large chunks of dialog from the book and had extra scenes and stuff written around it. All though I originally thought the show was excellent but after reading the book the book is out of this world a solid 10/10. I would recommend this book to everyone.I am hoping the following two books in the sequence 'He Kills Coppers' and 'True Crime' get made into series.

LewisJForce I tuned in to 'The Long Firm'" with high hopes. A modern historical drama starring the excellent Mark Strong looked promising, bringing to mind memories of 'Our friends in the north' - one of the best TV dramas of the past 20 years. Having now seen the fourth and final episode, I have to say that, although it was entertaining and extremely well-made, I was more than a little disappointed.I am loathe to criticise ambitious drama like this in the light of the soapy dreck that constitutes the vast majority of British televisual output. However, 'The Long Firm' promised more than it delivered. And its faults lay firmly with the writing.Each episode used a different narrator to relay details of their associations with the main character, London gangster Harry Starks. The technique proved clumsy, with the voice-overs unsubtle and unenlightening. Why employ such a method if ultimately the insights are all the same? More friction needed to exist between what we saw and what we heard for it to work. Like too much modern drama, the approach didn't transcend its stylistic facility.In the same vein, character development and the attendant psychological underpinnings (e.g. gangster as thwarted celebrity/entertainer) were clichéd and overly familiar. The final episode, in particular, was embarrassingly heavy-handed in its satire of the counter-culture and academia. In general there was too much pastiche and caricature to allow real interest. Any emotional impact generated by these people was purely down to the skill of the actors and the director. Also, I haven't read the source novel by Jake Arnott, but I am presuming that it made a more profitable and resonant use of the metaphorical title. Here, it was explained briefly in episode one and then thrown away.Ultimately, each episode proved highly watchable but somehow unsatisfying, leaving this viewer to assume that we were building to some revelation/twist/new insight that never came, the screenwriter happy to fashion the piece into little more than a summation of period iconography/psychology.There was much to enjoy, though. The piece was extremely well-cast, mixing a few expected-but-impressive veterans with a lot of talented but lesser-known faces. Mark Strong proved to be a commanding linchpin as Starks, bringing charisma and nuance to the role. Also notable were Lena Headey's Ruby Ryder, the excellent George Costigan, and Shaun Dingwall as Harry's biographer. The period detail and mise en scene were nicely understated and entirely convincing, and there were nice, ballsy touches like the interpolation of footage from the 'Parkinson' show. Additionally there were a few welcome surprises on the contemporaneous soundtrack, such as Janice Nicholls' novelty hit 'I'll give it five'. Or 'Oi'll give eet foive!'.Perhaps I expected a little too much from this piece. I walked away reasonably entertained but with an air of opportunities unfulfilled.