One of the occasional forays behind the camera of Phil Davis, the hugely gifted actor whose face pops up in everything from a Dickens adaptation to a geezer gangster flick.
Which is particularly of interest in this film because it’s neither of those. In fact it’s a genre Brits have a fairly low success rate in – the road movie. Upping the ante even further it’s a feelgood road movie. And heaping the improbable on the unusual, it’s set in a Scotland that’s actually sunny.
It stars the enormously talented Christine Tremarco, as a teenager on the run from her abusive dad. Also on the hoof is Stuart Sinclair Blyth as her tree-hugging be-dreadlocked boyfriend, and Sheila Hancock turns up as the toffee-nosed terminally ill woman they run into.
Hancock is another standout in this unusual drama with a heart warm and genuine and a mouth occasionally foul. The New Age stuff does date it a bit but Davis has a straightforward way of directing and does with his actors what actor/directors often do – he lets them get on with what they’re good at.
In doing so the performers and Davis wring extra psychological insight out of Steve Chambers’ screenplay. Lovely stuff.
Hold Back the Night – watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2013