Shan Khan’s Honour has a promising start, which makes way for an ill thought-out middle section and a risible conclusion.
Young Muslim Mona is targeted by her family after she plans to run away with her non-Muslim boyfriend. When matters get out of hand, the family enlist the services of a bounty hunter…
The subject of honour killings is an interesting one to tackle. It is a contemporary issue that has evaded the cinematic glare. Honour begins well enough. The initial set up grabs the audience’s attention as it is unclear where the film will go from there. The non-linear structure of Honour makes the timeline unclear, and offers a number of outcomes as a result.
With a fairly strong start, Honour could have built on this and offered a competent and socially aware thriller. However, writer-director Shan Khan eschews more plausible routes to take the film into the realms of the unconvincing. It is a shame, as the beginning of the film showed suitable potential.
Exactly what the film hoped to achieve is intangible. Given the subject area, it is suggestible that Khan should have dealt with it with a sense of brevity. Honour could have been a meaty investigative drama, but instead chooses a less believable chain of events. Paddy Considine’s character is unconvincing in his transformation. Meanwhile, there seems to be a number of more plausible routes that Mona would have taken given the dilemma of her situation. The final line in the film is truly terrible, given the weight it is supposed to carry.
Paddy Considine delivers a suitable enough performance, but his range deserves more than what he is given to work with. Aiysha Hart is also adequate, with none of the cast really shining in this production.
The serious facts before the end credits belie the fact that Honour is an overreaching thriller that misses its opportunity.
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