FILM | Reviews
ROMANTIC DRAMA GOD’S OWN COUNTRY (15) 105min ●●●●●
Domestic discord gives way to a transformative romance on a struggling farm in the assured debut of director Francis Lee. Festival favourite God’s Own Country is a fluidly shot, achingly honest film that reaches beyond its modest setting and low-key love affair to make a potent plea for countrywide change. Josh O’Connor captivates as Johnny Saxby, a young Yorkshireman living an unhappy existence with his sour grandmother (Gemma Jones) and disgruntled father (Ian Hart). He’s burdened with the upkeep of the family farm by day, following his father’s stroke, and drinks himself stupid by night. Things get interesting for Johnny when swarthy Romanian migrant Gheorghe (an instantly appealing Alec Secareanu) arrives to assist with the lambing. Theirs is a liaison that begins as primordial passion, consummated against the land itself, but that grows more intimate as the bitterly closed Johnny slowly opens himself up to the possibility of a better life.
Writer-director Lee grew up on a farm in Yorkshire and is fittingly respectful of the toil. There’s real satisfaction in the gradual softening of a hard lad and joy in the lust and laughter that acts as a salve to the scowling oppression of the Saxby home, and the film shows the hidden humanity of those who at first seem almost comically unwelcoming.
Although Jones and Hart are underused, Lee beautifully illustrates how personal
disappointment begets cruelty to others – a cycle that cannot easily be broken from within. With Gheorghe as capable as he is kind, this outsider’s value to an insular, damaged family goes beyond his potential as a partner for Johnny. In a divided Britain crippled by its fear of foreigners, the wider point is clear. (Emma Simmonds) ■ Selected release from Fri 1 Sep.
DOCUMENTARY THE WORK (15) 89min ●●●●●
Crime and punishment are viewed from a fresh perspective in a wide-ranging documentary that won the Grand Jury Award at this year’s SXSW. An acutely observed account of a group therapy session within the walls of Folsom State Prison, it challenges the purpose of incarceration without end and the restrictive expectations of modern masculinity. The result is an emotional journey resonating well beyond this hidden corner of America.
Twice a year, members of the public are allowed to join inmates of this maximum security Californian
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prison for four days of intense therapy. The Work selects three of the incomers from one session. All of them have issues they want to explore and all arrive with varying degrees of scepticism about the therapy. What follows is a raw account of their experience in which director Jairus McLeary and co-director Gethin Aldous appear to have won a huge degree of trust. The film is unfiltered and uncompromising, with camerawork that places us right in the middle of the action as souls are bared and vulnerabilities confronted. Anyone dubious about the process is faced with the proof of their own eyes in a film that never feels exploitative and remains gripping throughout. (Allan Hunter) ■ Limited release from Fri 8 Sep. 54 THE LIST 1 Sep–31 Oct 2017
ROMANTIC COMEDY HOME AGAIN (12A) 97min ●●●●●
Sickly sweet and tough to swallow, rom-com Home Again is a jagged little pill of contrivance and cliché from debut writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer that wastes the talents of Reese Witherspoon. She plays newly-single mum of two Alice who moves back to her childhood home in California, where a drunken night leads to a meeting with a trio of twentysomething wannabe filmmaker dudes. Improbably, the boys move into Alice’s guest house, winning over her cutesy kids and cynical mother (Candice Bergen) in no time. That Witherspoon’s charm almost rises above such insipid material is no mean feat, considering it paints her as a clutz who we first meet ugly-crying over her separation. Later, she swoons over Harry (Pico Alexander), with whom she enjoys a steamy flirtation after he fixes her kitchen cabinet. Although there is chemistry between Alice and Harry, their dynamic relies too much on broad generational strokes: he throws up after drinking too much, she does his laundry, etc. And more time is invested in watching these boys attempt to realise their lofty ambitions than on Alice’s own journey. She, it seems, is content simply to plug the gap left by her ex with the new men in her life. (Nikki Baughan) ■ General release from Fri 29 Sep.
DRAMA UNA (15) 92min ●●●●●
The screen version of Scottish playwright David Harrower’s award-winning Blackbird makes for uncomfortable viewing as it explores the legacy of a relationship between a middle-aged man and a 13-year-old girl. Shifting between sympathy and revulsion, the film challenges an easy understanding of what transpired. There is no question it was child abuse, but are we willing to even consider that it might also have been a romance? Una (Rooney Mara) is now in her twenties. She is
promiscuous, embittered and shackled to her past. She heads to an industrial estate to confront Ray (Ben Mendelsohn), an ex family friend who took a shine to the young Una, promising they would run away together. Moving between the current confrontation and the past, Una struggles to break free from its theatrical roots and wastes the fine Riz Ahmed in a thankless supporting role. The quality of the central performances is what keeps you watching, with Mara impressing as a damaged survivor in search of a way to escape her living nightmare. A shifty Mendelsohn is creepily plausible, bringing out the ambiguity of a man who may have been sincere or may have been predatory, but who certainly should have known better. (Allan Hunter) ■ Selected release from Fri 1 Sep.