★★½ (2½ out of 4)
First things first: As a diehard “Peaky Blinders” fanboy to the end, I wanted to like the two-hour-plus big-screen epilogue, “The Immortal Man” (now in theaters and on its way to Netflix on March 20), better than I did. But disappointment is a far cry from disaster. OK, that’s out of the way. Now on with the show.
It’s been four years since “Peaky Blinders” ended its streaming run after six glorious seasons of fighting Irish menace, mischief and angst. At first, I wasn’t keen on Cillian Murphy returning Tommy Shelby to us as a moody shut-in, with only Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee) for company, scribbling his memoirs while the gangster action took place off camera.
Lat’s see what the man himself, an Oscar winner for “Oppenheimer” but, Emmy be damned, never even a nominee for his peak in “Peaky,” says about his career-defining role as tormented Tommy, the man with the 1000-yard stare he began playing 13 years ago: “He’s on his own, rattling around in his big house with all these demons and ghosts, and the consequences of his deeds rushing back in.” Spare me. Didn’t Martin Scorsese do that already in “The Irishman?” I longed for the old Tommy who said things like, “Today, it will be me dead or you—but whoever it is will wake up in hell tomorrow.” That’s our Tommy.
Relax. Tommy doesn’t stay retired for long. His book, also called “The Immortal Man,” is a form of therapy that takes physical form when his old gang comes calling. They’re pulling him back in, “Godfather” style, to take up where he left off as the leader of Birmingham, England’s notorious Peaky Blinders mob.
For all its entertainment value as fan service, it’s an unnecessary coda to an unforgettable series.
But it’s now 1940, there’s a war going on, and the new Peaky leader is Tommy’s bastard son, Duke, who was introduced in season six, played by Conrad Khan. The great Barry Keoghan takes over the role here and embodies Duke as he is, a grenade primed to explode. Duke’s been stealing weapons and dynamite meant for the war effort. He’s also in league with Tim Roth’s villainous Beckett, a Nazi collaborator who convinces Duke to help him destroy the British banking system with counterfeit pounds, printed by the Third Reich.
Duke’s daddy issues propel the plot into dramatic quicksand. Working from a script by series creator and MVP Stephen Knight, director Tom Harper strains to untangle the knot of family issues crisscrossed with world events, a “Peaky” specialty.
With most of the Shelbys dead, though Tommy’s sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) gets her licks in as a member of Parliament, “The Immortal Man” relies on newbies Keoghan and Rebecca Ferguson. The “Dune” actress plays Kaulo, Duke’s aunt, who uses gypsy magic to bend Tommy to her will. Good luck with that. Luckily, other Tommy cronies from the docks do show their mugs, such as Charlie Strong (Ned Dennehy) and Hayden Stagg (the reliably brilliant Stephen Graham). And, oh yeah, also the ghost of Tommy’s young daughter, Ruby, and a key motivating incident involving elder Shelby brother Arthur (Paul Anderson).
I will shut up now, except to say that longtime fans and newbies wont’ be able to take their eyes off Murphy, wrapping up his career-defining role with that 1000-yard stare that can flare into a violence that burns into the memory. A lot of Shelby blood is spilled in “The Immortal Man” as Tommy finds a way to determine his own fate.
Cynics may see this movie as little more than a launching pad for a forthcoming 1950s-set spin-off series about the Blinders that Netflix has already set into motion. They’re not completely wrong. I prefer to remember Tommy on that white horse at the end of Season 6, still traumatized by his wartime horrors in the tunnels, but riding off to a future, however uncertain.
“The Immortal Man” shuts a lot of doors I wasn’t ready to close. For all its entertainment value as fan service, it’s an unnecessary coda to an unforgettable series. Act accordingly.