"I'm sorry - I don't think I can."
The seemingly unfilmable novel finally gets to the movie treatment after all these years, and it is a credit to all concerned that this is a generally successful (and surprisingly faithful) adaptation of one of J.G. Ballard's strongest works. One of the film's pleasures is that it simultaneously feels very much much J.G. Ballard and also recognisable as a Ben Wheatley film, and the collision of the two on screen together with the original 1970s setting makes for a very heady viewing mix. Wheatley's control of space and body abstraction through framing ties in with Amy Jump's precise script - based largely on Ballard's dialogue - thus echoing some of Ballard's key ideas effectively. Hiddleston is well cast as his style suits the character, with Jeremy Irons, Luke Evans and in particular Sienna Miller all inhabiting this micro-society strongly. Like the novel, the anticipation and growing social divide in the first half is more interesting and perhaps better realised than the social disintegration of the second half, and High-Rise is a film to admire rather than to love, but it is a bold and clever transfer from page to screen.
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