Film review: The Inheritance

Last night we went to see an independent Scottish film called The Inheritance which apparently cost the sum total of £5000.  The 60 minutes we viewed were a very good use of such a small amount of money (well, in the film world it is small).  

The film is directed by Charles Henri Belleville and stars Tim Barrow and Fraser Sivewright as brothers David and Fraser who meet up after a 5-year absence following the death of their disappointment of a father and it follows their progress on a road trip in their father's VW camper van from Edinburgh to Skye, which they have to do with a mysterious key in hand in order to collect their inheritance.  Along the way the brothers attempt to reconnect, but can they manage it despite their antagonistic nature of their relationship?

The Inheritance was nominated Best UK Feature at Raindance last October and subsequently won the inaugral Raindance Award at the 2007 British Independent Film Awards, gained two nominations at the 2008 BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards, and was nominated Best Debut UK Feature at London's East End Film Festival.

There are several reasons for this.  The film works on many levels.  The cinematography is amazing for the budget.  The landscape (Glencoe, Glenshee, Skye), filmed in snowy February, is stunning, and gives amazing light that makes the film look like it has had major tonal work applied, except that it is all natural.  The actors are superb with the rapport being very believable and the events that are portrayed are interesting in both a storytelling way as well as in a metaphorical sense.

And so, this is where there are spoilers, as the end is another strong point of the film being ambiguous and open to interpretation.  Towards the end of the journey the brothers pick up an attractive female hitch-hiker who falls for David and sleeps with him when they stay in a bothy one night.  However, on reaching Skye, she makes a move on Fraser and the next morning their camper van is gone.  Angered, David drags Fraser off on foot to the point where the inheritance is promised, but only to find a deserted graveyard.  Fraser mocks him, explaining that the road trip was their father's attempt to make them connect and that that was their inheritence.  In argument, David then reveals that their father had phoned him two weeks before his death also expressing this desire and telling him something.  The cocky Fraser then becomes the angered one and tries to force the extra information from David, accidentally throttling him in the process.

Part of the Q&A afterwards was taken up exploring the meaning of the ending, with suggestions including that David didn't actually sleep with the girl but knew she was their hidden sister and was angered when Fraser ruined this fresh familial link.  Now, after an evening to sleep on it and with Shane Meadow's Dead Man's Shoes somewhere in my head, here is what I think.  The story should not be delineated in the literal sense as it entirely wraps up only in the metaphorical.  The camper van (from the father) represents the containment of the brotherhood, with the road-trip being the finite time they have to sort it out (as applies to anyone with such a relationship).  The progress that is haltingly made is tested by the external force applied in the shape of the girl (if she even existed).  David has a connection with her, but Fraser supposedly being the more stable and confident brother sees his chance and takes it.  This proves that the brotherly connection is a weakness and not a strength to these two, and consequently the camper van is gone.  When there is nothing in the graveyard and Fraser mocks David, David drops the key (the 'key' to the road-trip and their last chance of a relationship).  From here, the balance shifts from one extreme to the other as Fraser realises David knows something and is angered by it, proving that although now cemented as destructive, their bond is still there, and Fraser sees it through, becoming horrified by what he has done.  In allusions to their upbringing, it is clear that both brothers were severely affected by an impossible-to-please alcoholic father and a quick-to-anger mother, and what played out on their road trip, what was shown to be a bond that was too poisoned to be positive, was in actual fact their true inheritance.

See this film, and continue the debate here!

 

Hot Fuzz

Well, Hot Fuzz is here at last and this reviewer for one can reveal that it was easily worth the wait! The premise is simple enough, that top cop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is relocated from London to the sleepy village of Sandford because his high arrest rates have been making the rest of The Met look bad. However, there is more to idyllic Sandford than meets the eye, and soon Angel, along with bumbling local cop PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) are taking on some powerful dark forces that have had a tidy-hedgerow domination over the village for quite some time.

The story certainly is less original than Shaun of the Dead, but then just try and imagine a story more original than a zom-rom-com! And I found that the story takes a while longer to get underway and justify itself than its zombie predecessor, but I'm sticking my neck out and saying that although it will maybe never match the sheer charm of Shaun, Hot Fuzz has done what I thought was impossible, and beat it, albeit maybe only in a photo-finish.

Once Fuzz gets underway and the bond between Angel and Butterman is cemented, then it does all flows freely, and from the return of Angel to the village after an initial ousting, it becomes one fantastic roller-coaster of ludicrous violence and hilarious imagery, providing laughs greatly in excess of Shaun. The film then stamps out its own personality and stands alone, deservedly so. Those involved should prepare themselves for a lot of money being thrown at them. Hopefully, they will be able to handle it. In the week that the US-partners of Wallace & Gromit dumped the plasticine heroes, I can't help but think that Hot Fuzz is very much a British success, relying on the idiosyncrasies of self-deprecating British humour. Having said that, Shaun did rather well over there, so who can say?

A small criticism is the time it takes for the film to end, with a couple of extra scenes, which to me just felt like Pegg and Wright not wanting to stop playing with their toys before it's time for tea, but as the film doesn't feel overlong anyway (we are not talking Return of the King end-sequence here) and the extras are fine and funny, it just makes it less rounded. Maybe that's a good thing too, I'll let you decide...

Films of 2006

My top three in order:

1) Red Road

Andrea Arnold's debut is a stark feature set on the poverty line in Glasgow as seen through the modern phenomenon of the CCTV world. A bold and novel film played with engaging realism by all involved. The film follows CCTV operator Jackie's identification of a face from her past and her slow coming-to-terms with a terrible tradegy. I was hooked from beginning to end and sympathetic for all involved. I found myself musing on this film for weeks afterwards. Simply flawless.

2) Pan's Labyrinth

An intelligent and darkly refreshing take for the fantasy genre. Guillermo del Toro's beautiful film is set to the backdrop of the end of the civil war in 1944 Spain. 12-year-old Ofelia's despairing real-life prospects are supplanted by her discovery of a ruined world, to which she may be the saviour. This is a powerful work with some important messages with regard to the vitality of ideals and the imagination, but for me, two small points ensured that Red Road wasn't challenged for the top peg. The first is that towards the end there is a point-of-view shot from one of the adults seeing Ofelia talking to one of the characters from her fantasy world, except that the character isn't there in this P-o-V shot. To me, this took away the choice that the audience had in whether to fully believe Ofelia's version of events or not. It felt insulting to me, as for the rest of the film this choice was maintained, and I believe it reduced the effect of the end of the film. The second, much more minor point, is to do with the editing. Midway through the film, a fantasy character and Ofelia have an argument and it's threatened that Ofelia will have no further access to the world. There then proceeds, I felt, an excessively lengthy 'real-world' section of the film, which made me start to question whether the fantasy involvement had indeed ended. Small points both, and still a highly recomended film!

3) Little Miss Sunshine

A very funny and warm film. Here is September's review:

Went to see the excellent Little Miss Sunshine last night and it made me laugh out loud more freely than any film in a while has been able to. The film follows little Olive Hoover and her family as they travel to California so that she can compete in the hideous Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant (for 6-7 year olds!). Each cast member gives in a fantastic performance as their respective member of this fractured family and together with a pretty tight script and wonderful cinematography, it is on the whole a delight to watch, and needless to say I recommend you to do so.

However, it isn't flawless. Sometime about midway through I had to tell myself not to get caught up on some stretches of the premise (no police action by the hospital/car pool people? Horn mysteriously stopping during the emotional bit and whilst parked outside the hotel? Security not taking over in that end scene). Also, the family seems so fractured at the beginning you wonder why their together at all, but then again I know first hand at times that this can be true! It's all minor stuff in any case, as you really are having so much fun (sometimes in the so-painful-but-nice way), and the film nicely avoids any over-the-top emotional sugary end. There you go then, a well-managed and very funny film and one that doesn't make you feel that you're being used in a some boardroom formula. Beautiful.