Speak Like a Child

SPEAK LIKE A CHILD

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Dolby Stereo

Three old friends - two men and a woman - return to an abandoned orphanage on the Northumbrian coastline where, as children, they fell in love with each other and committed an act of brutal violence.

Grim drama from the British Film Institute, in which three disparate characters are drawn together by their mutual loneliness. The adults (played by Cal Macaninch, Rachel Fielding and Richard Mylan) are a charmless lot, but their younger counterparts - Daniel Newman as the group's unofficial leader, Fraser Ayres as the despondent newcomer seduced by Newman's boyish charm, and Alison Mac as the girl who unites them - are wholly engaging. Wayward Geordie accents aside, the actors cultivate a vivid impression of young adults on the cusp of maturity, exploring a capacity for love and affection denied them by the uncaring adults responsible for their welfare. The movie focuses most of its attention on the relationship between Newman and Ayres - they bunk off school together, protect each other from the orphanage's resident bully (Gavin Green), and Newman teaches the illiterate Ayres how to read - though it's Mac who brings their sexual desires into clear focus. The landscape is bleak and beautiful, comprising long empty beaches and desolate woodlands, loaning the film a mood of despair which portends a climactic tragedy. Not for all tastes, but quietly rewarding for those prepared to stay the distance. Directed by John Akomfrah (SEVEN SONGS FOR MALCOLM X).

For gay viewers in particular, lead actor Newman is pretty much irresistible: Attractive and talented, he began his career as a child actor in various UK-lensed Hollywood blockbusters (ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, BRAM STOKER'S Dracula, etc.) before gravitating toward meatier roles in homegrown adult dramas such as 15: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PHILIP KNIGHT (1993) and JUNK (1999), the latter based on Melvin Burgess' uncompromising children's book which describes the romance between two teenagers who descend into drug addiction. Newman followed his role as the disaffected, bisexual antihero of SPEAK LIKE A CHILD with his career-defining portrait of a handsome East End rent boy in ENDGAME (2001), a controversial drama which takes full account of his elfin beauty by displaying him in various states of undress throughout. Sadly, Newman has been relegated to the sidelines in recent years, playing little more than bit parts in various television dramas ("Judge John Deed", "Doctors", etc.).

I viewed this film at the recent London film festival screening, at which the director was present to discuss his work. The story is a bleak tale of life for 3 teenagers in a remote children's home and its effects upon them in adult life. Told in flashback, the story recounts how the three (2 boys,1 girl) band together emotionally and physically in the face of adversity, ultimately committing murder and covering it up. In the present, the three are all sad, emotionally drifting individuals who return to the scene of their crime, each with a different agenda. The story builds in both the past and present to a violent climax. Filmed in Scotland, although set on the Northumberland coast, this film is effective in drawing one into the plight of the three main characters, although we are almost in a dreamworld, set outside of normal society - so remote is the location.

I saw this film in Köln in the Verzaubert Film Festival. In the first 15 minutes or so, I was not very impressed by the film: Some scenes of Sammy's painful memories were too dramatic and they came before anything was told about him. But as the films went on, we saw the relationship between Billy and Sammy developed. The threesome felt natural, which was one of the best things the film achieved. The tension between the 3 when they met again 12 years afterwards was another. The hurt and the struggle inside the grown-up Billy really gripped my heart. The film may not be perfect but it is one of those films that makes you want to watch it again.