philipfoxe
Here is a perfect example of a movie that should never have got funding. We have a great, isolated, bleak landscape. A father and daughter deserted by a mother and wife. However we are given nothing to work with. No social or familial links explained. No feelings or thoughts ever discussed. All we get is silence, into which, I presume, we are expected to project our our own ideas. Why was Shell taken out of school? What's the relevance of the book 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' left behind by a client? Then Dad and her start kissing and Dad starts to think she is his wife? Then he ups and kills himself. Honestly...a real pile of crap.
RIK-22
Obviously its very hard to give this massively high marks, as the subject matter is not the most interesting. However I did enjoy it, it is slow paced, but has that knack of using silences to convey much more than dialog can.One thing however is that I didn't see any review getting what I got from the story. I will come straight out with it, for me this was her being rejected by a father who had been molesting her since a young age. It was clear to me that now she was older, she was being rejected by her father. Her mother had perhaps left because of the situation or her leaving caused it.There is a clear scene where a young girl wanders into the place and the mother is worried, as is the daughter, thinking he would go after a young girl again.She has mixed emotions of loving her father as a father, but feeling rejected by father sexual love, so she goes of with some local boy briefly. In the end she is released and can move on.
bob_bear
Artsy-fartsy character study of creepy father and daughter combo stranded in the middle of nowhere. As the minutes of your life tick away never to return the only comfort to be had is the knowledge that at least your life is not as godawful as theirs.One-note throughout, it plods, grimly towards it's dreary conclusion. Whoever thought this was worth funding clearly has more money than sense.The acting is suitably stilted to the point of somnambulent. The dialog is largely monosyllabic. All in all, it is truly the movie equivalent of watching paint dry. Not only was it never worth a trip to the cinema it isn't even worth a free download. Don't waste your electricity.
billcr12
Shell is a seventeen year-old girl living with her father at a gas station in Scotland in the middle of nowhere. He sells old cars for scrap metal, while she pumps gas and cooks and cleans, much as a wife would do. Apparently, her mother headed for greener pastures and left dad and his daughter to fend for themselves. The movie drags on for an hour and a half, with no sense of humor or life to speak of. The almost incestuous overtone is creepy, as is some guy with a BMW who gives Shell a pair of expensive jeans for obvious reasons. The lead actress is very ordinary looking and her father seems to be the unhappiest man on earth. The two combine for an extremely depressing and meaningless drama which I cannot recommend for any reason. The one positive note is the beautiful Scottish countryside.
AD
