Saturday, April 24, 2010

Movie Review: Down Terrace

Down Terrace is a British crime film. Bill and Karl are father/son crime figures who've just gotten out of jail and are trying to lay low at their home with Maggie, Bill's wife and Karl's mother. We don't know details about what they did or even their last name but we do hear a lot of conversations as various people visit the home. Karl's girlfriend arrives and she's pregnant. Various other associates visit and Bill and Karl try to figure out who leaked information to the police. And of course, the family argues.

The writing is good. The conversations are interesting and as the stakes are steadily raised we consistently get deeper into the characters. There were a few too many (almost tender) scenes of the family singing for my tastes but that was ok. They did serve as a good contrast to the swearing and rows.

My only other issue is that the film was mostly shot in extreme closeup. Most all of it takes place in their house and with so few wide shots I barely got a sense of what the house looked like. I read afterwards that Bill and Karl were played by real life father-son pair of Robert and Robin Hill (who also co-wrote it) and it was shot in the home Robin grew up in (in just 8 days). I assume now all the closeups were meant to make up for the lack of space to film wider.

Sorta The Sopranos crossed with The Snapper and bit of Shakespearian tragedy. Good film not great, but I think I'm liking it more in retrospect.

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