The McMafia star’s empathetic role as a single dad dying of brain
cancer stops Uberto Pasolini’s film from getting cloying
James Norton, the
Actor who fixed up so smartly in TV’s McMafia that he instantly jumped to the top of the list to take over from Daniel Craig as
James Bond, looks completely different here, and it took me a while to place him. With his neck tattooed, face gaunt and pale, Norton plays Belfast window cleaner John, a single dad who is dying of brain cancer. The movie, inspired by actual events and directed by Italian film-maker Uberto Pasolini, is the story of John’s search to find a family to adopt his four-year-old son Michael (Daniel Lamont). It’s tender and poignant, but might be a bit cloying were it not for Norton, who underplays it beautifully with a performance of tremendous depth and empathy.
Related: James Norton: ‘I try to present myself as friendly and people see something darker’