Movie Review: Broken (2013) Dir. Rufus Norris

Broken (2013) Dir. Rufus Norris

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Blurb:  Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences. The story of a young girl in North London whose life changes after witnessing a violent attack.
 
Thoughts: A thoroughly unsatisfying 3 stars.

Broken starts out full of energy, three stereotypical familes in three stereotypical houses on a stereotypical British street (they wish a typical street in England was this nice) and the promise of dark events and lashings of conflict.

Slowly you realise that the director is playing games with you, instead of making an accurate portrait of Broken Britain he's sugar coating things, instead of real relationships he is going to show you ideals. Instead of looking at reality he is going to demonise the weakest elements of the society he chooses to show. The upwardly mobile working class are evil. The mentally handicapped are evil.

Every time there's a decision to make that would make this film better, harder, edgier, more realistic, he takes the easy and lazy option. Of course the chavs are evil, the Daily Mail says so. Naturally the handicapped guy is a danger to children, the Daily Mail says so. By the time the third act drags the carcass of an already rotting film towards the finish line I could take no more as every obvious event unfolds exactly as expected. Even chavs hate the handicapped so they can't all be bad can they?
 
I know it is based on a novel which potentially was written for young teens or those adults with arrested development (most of the world?) so perhaps most of the blame should lay with the guy wrote the novel or the guy who adapted it for the screen and I am so disgusted with them that I won't even bother looking up their names.

This gets the three stars because every single caricature is played to perfection, there's not a bad performance amongst them. Eloise Laurence shines as the lead girl and deserves all the praise in the world but her supporting cast led by a delightfully accurate Rory Kinnear should bask in the collective glow of a job well done.

In addition, I'm pretty certain there is at least one scene filmed in Hatfield, a town I sadly spent a fair amount of time living in. Spotting its shitty abandoned town centre cleaned up with some fake shops put in was a particular highlight for me and justifies every bad thought I ever had about the place.

Join the discussion in the comments below, at Letterboxd or #broken @bbbgtoby.

Movie Review: Peacock (2010) Dir. Michael Lander

If he only knew what she was doing.

Peacock by Michael Lander
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Blurb: In small town Nebraska, in an unspecified but presumably 1950s-ish past, John, a socially awkward bank clerk, lives with Emma, a shy and unassuming housewife, a wife that the rest of the town didn't know existed. She just happens to be the other side of his fractured personality. (I assure you this is not a spoiler.) One morning a train crashes in to their backyard and Emma is revealed to the townsfolk. John's carefully constructed life slowly begins to unravel as Emma's starts to bloom.

Thoughts: Quite scandalously released straight to DVD without any fanfare, Peacock is a fantastic example of Midwestern Gothic, a small piece of American cinema that deserves wider attention. On the surface sharing several similarities to that other awkward guy with unusual sexual tendencies in small town America movie, Lars and the Real Girl, this is a much more serious film and doesn't deliberately tug at your heartstrings. For all you fans of psychological thriller fiction, Peacock is the kind of movie Margaret Millar would have been proud to write.

Cillian Murphy is phenomenal as John and Emma, two parts of a split personality, and that reason alone makes the film worth seeing and certainly made it worth a cinematic release. I can't see how any other actor could have put in a better performance in 2010 and yet the unforgivable decision to skip even the festival circuit has robbed him of any industry recognition. He really is a beautiful woman too. It's quite unfair.

Michael Lander directs with restraint to create a slow moving psychological drama filled with superb cinematography thanks to the wonderful Philipe Rousselot and a pervasive creepiness through interesting use of the mise-en-scene and subtle musical cues. Throughout the 90 minute runtime I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't watching a Todd Haynes movie, it is that beautiful and meticulously crafted.

Questions are not answered, the viewer is challenged, brain cells are forced to engage. The plot unfolds with hints and clues, nods and tips of the hat, and still you do not really know which way anything will go, what is a subtle red herring, what you are imagining and what is intended. It's quite the marvel indeed and will almost certainly reward repeat viewings, unlike other more gimmicky split personality/psychotic break movies.

I cannot recommend this movie enough, however if you like your narrative cinema to be "normal" you may find yourself getting frustrated and angry with the content, as Peacock is most definitely not the kind of film you would describe as normal.

It is as good as this kind of movie can possibly get in my opinion and I only wish I hadn't waited 2 years to watch my copy.

Anyone actually seen this one? Who won the Best Actor Oscar in 2011? I bet they weren't as good as Murphy whoever they were. Comments anyone?