Joseph Mawle

Pete, the isolated father Joseph Mawle plays in Shell (2013), has a physical solidity that makes him difficult to ignore. We were unsettled by the quiet father-and-daughter scenes: Mawle makes Pete's loneliness painful without making him reassuring. Chloe Pirrie holds Scott Graham's film together, and our recommendation rests chiefly on her performance. Mawle gives her someone substantial to play against, keeping the father human in a drama that could easily reduce him to a source of unease.

Mawle's television work has repeatedly called on that intensity, from Jesus in The Passion (2008) to Benjen Stark in Game of Thrones (2011). Jedediah Shine in Ripper Street (2013–2016) gave it the more direct use of a recurring antagonist. In the first series of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022), his Adar could be sympathetic without losing the menace. His restraint gives us a reason to watch beyond waiting for the next threat. Too many such parts, though, can make the beard and the intensity seem like the whole job.

For Shell, Mawle's preparation included learning to skin a deer. That is a useful practical detail for a performer whose characters must look as though they have lives beyond the dialogue, although preparation alone is no guarantee of a good performance. Graham gives him room for the patient observation that makes the film worth seeing. He also lets that patience become inertia, and the melodrama is less persuasive than the quieter passages. Mawle's physical credibility helps, but it cannot settle the film's problems with pace.

The part we would most like to see next is one that does not require severity before Mawle has done anything. His preparation and restraint suggest possibilities beyond another forbidding entrance, even if casting him that way is understandable. Start with Shell, allowing for its slow stretches, and watch how much he contributes without displacing Pirrie.