Thursday, March 7, 2013

Sparkling smile brightens up Broken Britain melodrama

Sparkling smile brightens up Broken Britain melodrama

By Chris Tookey

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BROKEN (15)

Verdict: Flawed

Rating: 2 Star Rating

This small, British drama is mainly worth seeing for a sparky performance by Eloise Laurence, whose cheeky smile lights up the surrounding miserabilism.

When she’s around, whether having a crush on her teacher (Cillian Murphy) or experimenting with an equally tentative teenage boy (George Sargeant), I was involved with this somewhat hysterical tale of Broken Britain.

Scroll down to watch the trailer

Cheeky smile: Eloise Laurence lights up the screen as Skunk in Broken

Cheeky smile: Eloise Laurence lights up the screen as Skunk in Broken

Sadly, she’s crowded off screen by a compendium of stereotypes: a brutish single father (Rory Kinnear); a simpleton (Robert Emms) who serves as a convenient local scapegoat, but may be more dangerous than he seems; and our heroine’s dad, a caring solicitor (Tim Roth), who you think would have the sense to move out of a close that makes Brookside look civilised.

Screenwriter Mark O’Rowe has none too skilfully adapted a novel by Daniel Clay, and though former stage director Rufus Norris’s film is a well-intentioned attempt to encapsulate the state of Britain, it comes across as soapy and implausibly melodramatic.

Now watch the trailer

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