Tyrannosaur 2011

In a drunken rage, widower Joseph kicks his dog Bluey to death, an act he immediately regrets. He then heads to the local post office, where a confrontation unfolds with several Pakistani employees, setting off a tense clash. Later, at his local pub, he confronts three men who were teasing him and then flees, choosing to hide in a nearby charity shop. Inside, he meets Hannah, a compassionate employee whose devout Christian faith guides how she treats him. Her prayers for his relief and guidance provide a quiet counterpoint to the chaos of his life.

Joseph returns home and comes face to face with his six-year-old neighbour Samuel outside, while Samuel’s mother is inside with an abusive boyfriend. The evening takes another dark turn when, later, the Pakistani men from the post office surprise him and beat him unconscious, underscoring a pattern of violence that threads through his world. The following day, Joseph visits Hannah’s shop, where she tends to his injuries with care. Yet, when he speaks, he mocks her faith and taunts her for not being able to have children, leaving her visibly upset. She goes home, drinks wine, and falls asleep, only to be awakened by a troubling scene when her husband James returns and, unable to wake her, urinates on her.

The next morning, Joseph goes back to the shop to apologize for his earlier behavior, and the two of them share a drink. On returning home, James insinuates that someone saw Hannah with another man, a hoax she denies. The following day, Hannah arrives at work with a black eye and explains that she fell in the bath, attempting to normalize the injury. The tension grows when Joseph’s friend Jack dies of cancer, prompting Joseph to return to the shop for a suit for the funeral. James enters, and after seeing them laugh together, quietly threatens Hannah.

That night, a violent confrontation erupts at Hannah and James’s home: James knocks Joseph out, then rapes Hannah while she is barely conscious. After this, Hannah leaves James and asks Joseph if she can stay with him for a while, and he agrees. The two form a closer bond and become good friends. Joseph opens up about his past, revealing that his obese wife has been dead for five years due to complications from diabetes. He admits he once used the nickname “Tyrannosaur” for his wife—a cruel joke about her weight that now weighs on him with regret.

As time passes, Joseph warns Hannah that she is not safe with him and suggests she should leave for her own safety. After attending Jack’s funeral, Joseph resolves to confront James. He takes Hannah’s keys and goes to her house, where he discovers James’s bloody corpse in the bedroom. Shocked, he returns home and confronts Hannah. She initially feigns confusion, but then breaks down, revealing that James had brutally abused her for a long time; he even penetrated her with a broken piece of glass, leaving her unable to bear children.

A year later, Joseph writes a letter to Hannah recounting that Samuel was mauled by his mother’s boyfriend’s dog. In retaliation, Joseph beheads the dog with a machete. He also confesses that he had always admired Hannah from afar, as she was the only person in town who smiled at him and showed him kindness—the very reason he approached her in the first place. The film ends with Joseph visiting Hannah in prison, and despite everything, a sense of cautious hope for a better future lingers for both of them.