Daniel Searle
This film shows the great potential of a young director. Forget Hollywood blockbusters, CGI or impressive animations. This is as raw as it will get. The dialogue between a handful of simple characters, overtones a greater holistic complexity. Written in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar manner was something that I found intriguing, rather than being worthy of criticism. An original perception of a potentially real situation crafted through sharp editing, key elements of emotional acting and strategic camera shots echo genius. Watch the film, and be patient in its development. If you read the review and think "what is this guy talking about", watch it again and put yourself in the shoes of the character that Ray Winstone plays, not a passive observer watching a film.
Anyanwu
This film was great because the story was great and the two principal actors gave excellent performances. The core of the film is not about Richard but about Naomi. Richard provides the back story, or 2nd story, but the primary story is Naomi. The story is summed up in a nutshell on Naomi's face the last night that she is with Richard. The film moves from Naomi's "professional facade" uncaring and detached to one of openness and caring. As Naomi spends time with her young prostitute friend it provides her a path on which to walk toward a new openness. The soundtrack is great and the script is sharp. Using available light and many times a hand-held camera Richard Hawkins fashioned a great piece of cinema. Do yourself a favor and see this film. Then ask yourself why can't their be films like this in the U.S.? Save for Brokeback Mountain, small stories with few characters can be as entertaining and enlightening as big productions. The filmmaker of Everything made a great film.
dilbertsuperman
An overweight man with a Don Johnson beard is our main character, he's unfortunate to look at. He looks up a hooker who is worn out looking and must be pushing 40 if not already hurdled past. They sit together in a crappy run down apartment, and he asks her creepy questions but won't have sex with her. Since this is pretty psychotic it creeps her out- OK.. we get that in the first 5 minutes.. where is the rest of the idea? It promptly falls flat on its' face after delivering the idea and the only tool it has left is boredom and lack of action as a clumsy attempt at building suspense. After 7 minutes you go.. OK does anything ever happen in this piece of crap? Well.. you will be waiting for half an hour before any skin presents itself and be promptly let down directly after. And so we plod through this trash. The hooker has a very interesting body- it is quite athletic, almost to the point of androgyny, but she has a butter face. Her body is hot but her face...So you would expect either sex or violence in large quantities to present themselves but it just kind of bumbles along in a mind numbing lack of action and lack of any sort of plot development.This video will be a great joke to play on someone- tell them it is the sexiest most mind blowing heart pounding movie. They will hate you forever because this is anything but!!!!!!!!!!As Rick James said- I wish I had me 4 hands so I could give it four thumbs down!
voren
I'm just home from seeing this film at Sydney's Film Festival (2005) and have to say I was very impressed. It was especially rewarding to have the director (Richard Hawkins) in attendance for Q&A after the film.The performances were captivating, the suspense was just right (you never lost interest but weren't overly stressed either) and the setting utterly believable. (NB: the locations were real, not sets).The two main characters, although unusual, were validated by excellent dialogue and acting (Winstone and Graveson). And the story was interesting and very moving.I always think the measure of a good film is when I'm not aware of the audience or the chair I'm sitting in. I'm happy to say I was oblivious to both.On the downside, various jerky zooms reminded me that there was actually a camera involved and prevented complete immersion in the story outside of the storytelling. But it is nevertheless astonishingly impressive to see what a small budget ($47,500) and an enthusiastic writer/director can achieve in a 9 day shoot!
AD
