The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by
Invites viewers to think critically about such weighty concepts as justice, atonement and personal accountability.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, United States · 2005
Rated R · 1h 38m
Director Adrian Shergold
Starring Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan, Simon Armstrong
Genre Drama, History
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Following in his father's footsteps, Albert Pierrepoint becomes one of Britain's most prolific executioners, hiding his identity as a grocery deliveryman. But when his ambition to be the best inadvertently exposes his gruesome secret, he becomes a minor celebrity and faces a public outcry against the practice of hanging.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by
Invites viewers to think critically about such weighty concepts as justice, atonement and personal accountability.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Pierrepoint is worth seeing for Shergold's attention to process and for all the ghoulish details.
Like most television directors, Shergold is good with actors. Jowly, impassive and rigid with righteous dignity, Timothy Spall makes a wonderfully meticulous Pierrepoint.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
This is a riveting story about a man who for years moonlighted as an anonymous hangman while holding a day job as a wholesale grocery delivery man.
British actor Timothy Spall gives a shattering performance as Albert Pierrepoint.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
This measured bio-production might be viewed as a lesser companion piece to "Vera Drake" -- although in the case of Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman, all the period-piece tastefulness makes for a story more instructive than emotionally tangible.
Pierrepoint is handsomely crafted and well-acted, but its sense of scale is as constricted as a noose.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
In Pierrepoint:The Last Hangman Timothy Spall sinks his teeth into one of the juiciest roles of his career.
You have to wonder just how true to life the melodramatic depiction of these events is, especially since the film was made in partnership with TV's "Masterpiece Theater."