Skeletons

01/10/2010

Anna Griffin went to Broadway to see Skeletons

Ed Gaughan and Andrew Buckley as Davis and Bennett in Skeletons

Where to start...this is the first time I have reviewed a film for which I only have gushing words of pure delight to spill all over the page and the fact that it is the brainchild of a home-grown East Midlander makes the delight even sweeter. Based on a short film of the same name, Nick Whitfield (writer and director) has created a totally surreal world that your more irrational side will gladly absorb itself in.

Bennett (Andrew Buckley) and Davis (Ed Gaughan) are two agents working on behalf of Veridical Ltd., a company employed by couples with waning relationships, nosy parkers or, quite simply, lost souls. Their mission is to locate, observe and report back of the skeletons lurking in these clients' closets. For Davis this is the easiest job in the world, “stick to the rules, tell them everything, leave and never come back”, but Bennett is cursed with moral transparency and finds being a modern day Rasputin less and less appealing.

Shot in the hills and villages of the stunning Peak District, Skeletons captures quintessential English life and merges it seamlessly with the oddities of its characters. None are odder than Jane – a mother and wife entrapped by her own obsession of finding her missing husband - played with excruciatingly awkward yet truly captivating child-like charm by Denmark's Paprika Steen (The Idiots, Dancer in the Dark). When Davis and Bennett enter her family's life, sticking to the rules is the first rule to go out of the window.

Buckley and Gaughan offer the audience a comedy double-act that has been missing from our screens for far too long and with a script seemingly written around this very notion their dialogue, mannerisms and silent interplay is pitch-perfect – you'll find yourself laughing when they are simply staring into space. Of course, without an antagonist the roles of the protagonists, no matter how well sculptured, always risk running flat, and in Skeletons we are spoilt for choice with the peculiar Becky (Tuppence Middleton) and the uncompromisingly sharp Colonel (Jason Isaacs). Middleton (Chatroom, Tormented) succeeds in conveying a gutsy young woman racked with emotional responsibility towards her mother and confusion over her own 'natural gift'. I choose the word 'succeeds' as this character, had she have been played with just the slightest less smidgen of defiance by anyone else, could well have misjudged the tipping point between bolshie and cutesy. In fact, Middleton's performance invites us to enter another plot-line with her, the coming-of-age of Becky, and we dutifully go along, forgiving her for her underhand sleuthing and pick-pocketing ways.

You would be forgiven for assuming that a film with Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter) surrounded by lesser known names might tip the scales in one-man-showiness whenever he is on screen but this is not the case. This is not to say that Isaac's performance is not laced with character defined precision, because it is, but it is so diligent, and the character written with such faultless taste, that the Colonel's, and Isaacs', brilliance comes from the respect of Bennett and Davis as truly original characters.

If you have already seen the trailer then you would have been privy to the warped dimensions and beauty in many, if not most, of the shots and this quality is, for me, the icing on the very top of this home-made cake. As low-budget feature films from first time directors go, this has surely got to be one of the very best us Brits have ever produced. If I was pushed to find one dent in the film's halo it would be that it finished too soon. As my friend said as we left the cinema, “that's the first film I've ever seen at the flicks that I wanted to be longer”.

It's exciting to wonder what Whitfield can do with a bigger budget and more time...

Skeletons is released on DVD on Monday 4 October 2010.

Skeletons Official Website