The three families this story entwines are Broken in different ways, all live at the end of a cul-de-sac, a nearby scrapyard features in many shots where the crushing, mangling and pounding of cars in many ways reflects their lives. The central character is the insulin dependant twelve Year old 'skunk' played by Eloise Laurence. She lives with her father Archie, (the ever reliable Tim Roth) older brother Jed and their live in housekeeper Kasia.
Rory Kinnear is Bob the separated father of three near feral girls who run riot both at school and at home. When Bob finds a condom that one of the girls has been innocently playing with he jumps to the wrong conclusion. Which culminates in him giving a beating to Rick the backward son of Mr and Mrs Buckley. This is witnessed by Skunk and kickstarts an ultimately fatal chain of events. Running parallel with the story of these three families there is the on off relationship between housekeeper Kasia and schoolteacher Mike (Cillian Murphy). Plus the arrival of a traveller child Dillon who befriends Skunk.
If you enjoy Brit flicks in the mould of Mike Leigh or Shane Meadows this is a must see. Sparking on themes of love, loss, friendship and violence, this is a confident and unfussy directorial debut by Rufus Norris comfortably adapting to celluloid from the theatre. The way the story and characters interweave never feels contrived. The child actors are superb especially Martha Bryant as the youngest of the feral siblings who is outstanding. As is Laurence as Skunk who also sings on a couple of the Damon Albarn songs on the soundtrack.
The strange but ever reliable sign of a good movie is that amongst the dross at my local Cineworld this is only on show for one week (go figure). Cineworld get your ten screen act together please and support great British movies of this ilk. Films as good as this are few and far between throughout the year so get on the bus; to hell with the expense treat yourself to a taxi but get to the big screen and watch this little gem.
Rory Kinnear is Bob the separated father of three near feral girls who run riot both at school and at home. When Bob finds a condom that one of the girls has been innocently playing with he jumps to the wrong conclusion. Which culminates in him giving a beating to Rick the backward son of Mr and Mrs Buckley. This is witnessed by Skunk and kickstarts an ultimately fatal chain of events. Running parallel with the story of these three families there is the on off relationship between housekeeper Kasia and schoolteacher Mike (Cillian Murphy). Plus the arrival of a traveller child Dillon who befriends Skunk.
If you enjoy Brit flicks in the mould of Mike Leigh or Shane Meadows this is a must see. Sparking on themes of love, loss, friendship and violence, this is a confident and unfussy directorial debut by Rufus Norris comfortably adapting to celluloid from the theatre. The way the story and characters interweave never feels contrived. The child actors are superb especially Martha Bryant as the youngest of the feral siblings who is outstanding. As is Laurence as Skunk who also sings on a couple of the Damon Albarn songs on the soundtrack.
The strange but ever reliable sign of a good movie is that amongst the dross at my local Cineworld this is only on show for one week (go figure). Cineworld get your ten screen act together please and support great British movies of this ilk. Films as good as this are few and far between throughout the year so get on the bus; to hell with the expense treat yourself to a taxi but get to the big screen and watch this little gem.