for 23.Jan. TRIBUNE: ‘Better Things’ [6/10] and ‘Faintheart’ [5/10]

Published on: January 24th, 2009

HARD LIFE IN COUNTRY
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Better Things
UK/Ger 2008
Starring : Kurt Taylor, Rachel McIntyre
Director : Duane Hopkins
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Faintheart
UK 2008
Starring : Eddie Marsan, Jessica Hynes
Director : Vito Rocco
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THE success of Steve McQueen's Hunger has revived talk of that rare beast, the "British art movie" – perhaps even a "new wave" of same, encompassing Andrea Arnold's Red Road (2006); Anton Corbijn's Control and Joanna Hogg's Unrelated (2007), plus also 2008 unveilings such as Gideon Koppel's fine, semi-experimental documentary Sleep Furiously (set for limited release from May 22) and also Helen, from Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor (Apr 17).
   The latter, though it looks just great, gives the definite impression that its makers spent rather too long studying the work of continental masters such as Austria's Michael Haneke and Germany's Christian Petzold. And a certain "European" feel is also evident in Better Things from the Gloucestershire-born, Newcastle-based Duane Hopkins – though the creative debt in his case is arguably more Francophone (specifically, Gallic enfant terrible Bruno Dumont and Belgium's much-garlanded sibling auteurs the Dardennes) than Teutonic.
   The (slim) story here concerns a group of young people in an unnamed, countryside-adjoining southern-English town (most of the filming was done in and around Daventry, Northants) who struggle to deal with the drug-hastened death of a young woman whom they all knew, to a greater or lesser extent. Several use narcotics themselves to temporarily escape their bleak situation; others seek cheap kicks by driving breakneck-fast down the country lanes; one girl, the deceased's best friend (McIntyre) can't even bring herself to leave her house. Meanwhile a parallel story unfolds involving an elderly couple (touching played by real-life long-time marrieds Frank and Betty Bench) whose relationship has reached something of a dead end.
   Writer-director Hopkins' technique, though hardly groundbreaking – indeed, it's often over-reminiscent of his cinematic influences – is often rather impressive, thanks in no small part to the imaginative cinematography (Lol Crawley – also responsible for Lance Hammer's tonally-similar US indie Ballast), editing (Christopher Barwell – TV's Wallander) and sound-design (Douglas MacDougall – Summer, Hallam Foe, Red Road).
   These elements help compensate for the air of mannered ennui which occasionally hovers over proceedings – line-readings are often flat to the point of stiltedness. It's somewhat tough going, and many viewers will probably struggle to stay the course. But the cumulative effect proves worth the struggle, as the barest hints of optimism finally peek through those oppressive clouds of negativity.

YOUR starter for ten: which 40-year-old British thespian has, since 2002, worked with directors Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Mike Leigh (twice), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Isabel Coixet, Terrence Malick, J J Abrams, Michael Mann and Richard Linklater? And that list doesn't encompass his scene-stealing appearances in V For Vendetta, The Illusionist and Hancock nor his sterling performances in the lesser-seen Pierrepoint, Sixty Six and Beowulf and Grendel.
   The performer in question is Bethnal Green's Eddie Marsan, a hangdog character-actor – Britain's Paul Giamatti, if you like – whose ability to vanish into roles has seen him in constant demand on both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, it's hard to think of anyone in the present decade who has so effortlessly moved between small-scale independent pictures, award-laden 'prestige' works, and Hollywood blockbusters.
   Though one suspects he'll always be happiest in supporting roles (vide his incendiary work as the demonic driving-instructor in Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky) Marsan is gradually making the transition to leading parts: he's very much first among equals in Faintheart, a low-budget 'Brit-com' (originally intended for release last November, but delayed at the eleventh hour) whose big USP is the fact that it was developed – and is being promoted – among users of social-networking website MySpace. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of a luke-warm, only intermittently amusing enterprise, one which doesn't quite justify keeping Marsan from seeking further Hollywood shilling.
   Here he plays Richard, a DIY-superstore worker approaching middle-age, who spends most of his spare time in elaborate medieval costume as part of a historical-reenactment group – to the acute embarrassment of his teenage son Martin (Joseph Hamilton) and increasingly fed-up wife Cath (Hynes). Eventually Cath moves out and starts up a relationship with cocky young PE-teacher Gary (Paul Nicholls) – forcing Richard to re-examine his priorities in advance of a major "battle" with a rival re-enactment outfit.
   Martin, meanwhile, has lovelife issues of his own – ditto Richard's best pal Julian (Ewen Bremner), an obsessive Trekkie whose idea of romantic small-talk involves expressing himself in fluent Klingon. These various plots and subplots are worked through with dutiful ploddiness, all the way to a thuddingly by-the-numbers climax. Indeed, it's ironic that a movie which makes such a song and dance about proud individualism and defiant non-conformity should itself so assiduously adhere to the underdog-triumph template now grindingly familiar from The Full Monty and its countless imitators.

Neil Young
13th January, 2009
written for 23.Jan.09 edition of Tribune magazine

BETTER THINGS : [6/10] : UK 2008 : Duane HOPKINS : 93m (BBFC) : seen 18th October 2008, Magnus Barfot cinema, Bergen, Norway (Bergen Int'l Film Festival - public show – complimentary ticket) – original review

FAINTHEART : [5/10] : UK 2008 : Vito ROCCO : 91m (BBFC) : seen 27th June 2008, Cineworld Edinburgh (Edinburgh Int'l Film Festival – press show) – THR review