Reviews
Summer
Directed by Kenneth Glenaan
Certificate 15, 82 mins
One of those all too rare films that you fear may be average-to-disposable but turns out a gem, this is a minimum budget British movie with a sharp yet low key script. It’s a three hander, or three over two, because the piece concerns three characters and is divided into two parallel timelines running concurrently throughout its narrative – one today, one twenty years ago.
Shaun (Robert Carlyle) and Daz (Steve Evets) are mates since childhood and damaged goods. Neither has prospects, both are somehow just getting by. Daz is in a wheelchair, diabetic and lousy at looking after himself: his son calls him a pisshead, a waster. Shaun works at a garage to make ends meet but in effect works as his mate’s carer. Shaun can’t get away from memories of that summer 20 years ago when the pair (played by Matthew Workman and Sean Kelly) hung out with Shaun’s girlfriend Katy (Joanna Tulej), despite the disapproval of her upwardly mobile mother. When Daz is given eight weeks to live, Shaun resolves to track down Katy (Rachael Blake), now a successful lawyer in Sheffield, to tell her.
So far this doesn't sound particularly different from your typical British drama, but Hugh Elllis’s script has an incredible focus. Yes, the piece is well directed (a bad director can screw up a good script), the casting faultless with the performances terrific - and no doubt well deserved praise will be lavished on them all elsewhere, and on the beautifully understated cinematography as well. The film is made by Ken Loach’s production company and a number of cast members, particularly the youngsters, are untrained first time actors, from whom director Glenaan has coaxed remarkable, unaffected performances, all of which helps to make the film what it is.
But the writing’s the thing. Ellis covers that difficult issue of how three people can grow up in similar conditions, and one become a success while the other two struggle with dyslexia, self-harm and being a carer. Although the double narrative is presented from the point of view of the older Shaun, Ellis is equally interested in all of his three protagonists, and their younger selves.
The opening scene of the two men staring at the sky is as memorable many later episodes – young Shaun and Katy having sex by the side of a lake, or Daz’s present day visits to the hospital and his clear unease in the presence of Health Service professionals who know better than he does. These scenes are wrought from a stunning screenplay which never misses a trick but refuses to extend its running length merely for the sake of doing so. Sometimes, less is more. In short, this is an unexpected marvel to hunt down and see.
Jeremy Clarke
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