Bristol has become a city I have grown to love the past year and a half I have lived here, and when a film has been made in one's home city, one would really have high hopes for this film to make an impact. It is a micro budget film with a decent British cast assembled. When the indie distributing company went bust, they managed to raise the £20000 needed in a matter of a few days so it can get a cinema release thanks to various funding companies and the generous donations of celebrities. It fills me with joy, the fact that there is much support for the indie film industry, which gives hope for low budget film makers to make their masterpiece. Sadly, this film does not come close to this kind of status.
The film follows Dan (Tom Hughes) a rather unfocused and unambitious only child whose parents are splitting up (characteristic to many other indie films). When he is thrown out of his house, he and his cat both move into his work place which is a call centre. It is an interesting theme showing how work can consume your life, but as the film went on, I don't think this theme was explored to it's full potential. Instead, you see him not doing much work, lots of restrained conversations with his work colleagues, many scenes with nothing much happening and a night out at the Thekla, one of Bristol's iconic boat nightclubs/live venues. Like many indie films in the past, the generally un-interesting conversations are delivered in a way that is supposed to be deadpan, but funny. Due to bad performances and a weak script, all these jokes fall flat. The characters are very cliché. Ophelia Lovibond plays the typical love interest which Dan starts to fall in love with. Montserrat Lombard plays the cliché horrible boss Alice which Dan is strangely attracted to and in danger of becoming. I did not find anything between these two characters believable. There is also a geeky character who is supposed to be the random, funny guy, but like everything else in this film, it fails. I did however enjoy the location spotting aspect of the film. There is a scene shot in Stokes Croft, 2 minutes away from where I live. It was nice to see it on the big screen.
For an 86 minute film, it moves at a painfully slow pace and feels a lot longer than it actually is. Paul Kaye, who used to be the Sacha Baron Cohen of the 90′s, could not even save this film. His comic talents are wasted here. It is such a shame as Bristol is a city full of creative and talented people and a lot of potential. If independent films are being supported as much as this one has, one day, a new film will be made here which this city will be truly proud of.
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