100 Streets opens with a text that is spoken by a boy who lives in a bad area, who is part of a local gang in London. He tells how everyone has a moment in their lives, no matter how small, that can determinee the rest of your life. It struck a chord with me. For example, if I had not started working in a particular place when I was a teenager, my taste in music would have been different, I would have never met certain important people in my life and I would not be the person I am today.
The story revolves around three characters and the people around them. The first is Max (Idris Elba), a successful rugby player. Because of his unfaithfulness the bond with his wife Emily (Gemma Arterton) is falling apart. He only sees his children occasionally and lives a life of sex and drugs. The second character is Kingsley (Franz Drameh), a somewhat cliché-like character who is in a gang selling drugs and slowly trying to move away from it with the help of Terence (Ken Stott), who helps him to see his life could be different. The last one is George (Charlie Creed-Miles), a taxi driver, who together with his wife Kathy (Kierston Wareing) dreams of adopting a child.
&nsbp;100 Streets is a film about which the opinions are greatly divided. Some think it is too much like a soap opera, too melodramatic or predictable, but I didn’t feel that way myself. Because of the fantastic acting, the characters feel like real people who struggle with real problems. Whether that is a broken relationship, the consequences of an accident or the loss of a loved one. In the last part, the tension builds for all of them and I was sucked right into it. It is certainly not the same level of a movie like Magnolia, but nevertheless a film that is worth watching.
