WHO MADE IT? | Director: John Fawcett Cast: Sean Bean, Maria Bello, Maurice Roëves, Richard Elfyn, Abigail Stone, Sophie Stuckey | WHAT’S IT ABOUT? | Adele (Bello) has separated from James (Bean). They have a daughter, Sarah (Stuckey) together. James has withdrawn to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, leaving Sarah living with Adele. The couple have a civil relationship and on this fateful weekend, Adele takes Sarah to visit James. During their stay, Sarah goes missing – apparently disappearing over a cliff-top, into the sea, a hundred feet below – as it turns out, at the same place where decades earlier, residents of the area threw themselves to their deaths in a mass suicide. The arrival of a mysterious young girl, Ebrill, convinces Adele that Sarah is not dead, but being held in a mythical limbo-like place from where she can be rescued. James reacts in a different way, challenging his own idea of fatherhood. | WHAT’S IT LIKE? | When you get to the point where reviewers are chuckling with each alleged plot-twist and expositional line of dialogue, you know you’re onto a loser. The film doesn’t give itself much of a chance, for starters, failing to let us get to know – and identify with – these characters. Why did the family unit break down? Why did James withdraw to deepest, darkest rural Wales? Not getting to know the characters, we don’t really care what happens to them, and it’s less than convincing when one parent seems simply to accept the ghostly Ebrill as a replacement for their missing daughter, while the other seems to descend into madness. The plot was as incoherent as the film was generally unsatisfying. The only shocks came from the genre staples of stabbing string music, eery supporting characters (including a demented sheep) and cheeky but knowing attempts to trick the audience. It’s not clever, exciting or in any way fun, and it’s too disjointed to be in any way moving. It was be more satisfying to spend an hour and a half just sitting in the dark than watching The Dark. | Opens nationwide 7th April 2006
