New Year's Day

Anyone who has ever wondered what teenagers would get up to if they were freed from any obligations to their future will find New Year's Day quiet an interesting little morsel. A psychologist's dream study, it's also a rather effective film. MP's son Steven and under-privileged Jake are best friends at school. The desperation of each others parents, the 16-year-olds even have their own language. When they go on a school Christmas skiing trip, it's a great adventure. But it turns quickly to tragedy when on the first day the group of 11 friends is hit by an avalanche, and Jake and Steve are the only survivors. Returning to England, the pair are swamped in the emotion of a grieving town and a mass funeral (a particularly hard-hitting scene sees a long line of coffins on their way to the grave). As the townsfolk try to come to terms with the loss, Jake and Steven feel separated from everyone - that they should have died in the avalanche as well. So near the start of the film, on New Year's Day, we find Jake and Steve on a clifftop, ready to jump to their deaths - then deciding to live another year, to do the things they dreamed of doing. To cheat fate for a year. And so the film sets off apace, with the pair on a plan to rob a bank, burning down buildings, perform surgery, and so on. Director Suri Krishnamma sets the pace well, with the lads' exploits starting off in high spirits but slowly, uncomfortably, taking a darker turn. The two leads Andrew Lee Potts (Jake) and Bobby Barry (Steven) are both excellent, giving their characters a real sense of depth and direction. On the other hand, the ancillary characters are never really developed, and the film falters particularly in the uneasy sections with counsellor Geraldine (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who doesn't quite hit the right note as a social worker. On the whole though, this is a well filmed piece of work - emotional and dramatic.

...this is a film with a great deal of raw quality.

Two adolescent friends - one with all life's supposed headstarts, the other burdened with a shedload of reality - share a common battle to face up to their personal tragedy.

The interactions between the leads are well acted, but strangely in keeping with their social differences, the strongest empathy with each is possible when seen acting without the other.

An extremely strong film visually and probably best seen if you've just had a really s***ty day yourself. Welcome to the real world!

9/10

PS Great soundtrack...

I saw this film at a student screening at the Duke Of Yorks in Brighton...i was incredibly impressed. The plot is well thought out if a little cluttered and the screenplay creates two believable teenage characters. Not the stereotypes that often appear in cinema. The makers also avoided the 'gritty realism' angle so often favoured by British independent film makers.

The cinematography is beautiful and no time is wasted trying to justify the two characters actions. Audiences are left to make up their own minds about the moral implications and justifications of the 'tasks'. And crucially..a happy ending is avoided without making the audience leave the cinema depressed.

Some criticisms can be levelled at New Years Day, the plot is cluttered, and budget limitations mean the first 20 minutes are annoyingly difficult follow..and the fake snow is blatantly fake. The characters Jake and Steven spend the film mourning are not sufficiently created to allow for real sympathy for them. The ending is also weird although it is hard find a better way to conclude and after listening to the directors justifications I am inclined to agree that this is the best way to end.

All in all a superb British film that avoids the costume drama and gritty realism cliches in favour of an entertaining plot that makes you think. SOMEONE PUTS THIS FILM ON COMMERCIAL RELEASE...THE PUBLIC NEEDS IT!!!

I saw this film at the Sundance film festival, and it was fantastic! Two teenagers who decide to kill themselves on new years day (one year away), decide to spend their last year living out their friends dreams (their friends had recently died). They rob a bank, burn down the school, perform surgery, and do many other things. The film was deeply emotional, highly dramatic, and incredibly entertaining. Certainly worth seeing

I know the summary sounded harsh but it's true.

I got the film out of the video shop without knowing anything about it. The idea of the story sounded interesting (and it is) but it was handed horribly

They kill off the main cast early on (the only interesting bit of the film) and for an hour and a half you're left watching two pathetic losers. They hate each other and have nothing in common but somehow they're friends. One is a cliche poor boy who's family love him, the other is obscenely rich and his family ignore him. That's original!

There is no reason for why they're really doing all of this and by the first ten minutes you really don't care. You wish that new year's day would come quicker so that they can just kill themselves and get it over with. And the twist...made me want to vomit! What an awful pay off for an awful film.

badly directed, acted and written. It's like one big in-joke that you don't get. It's not even so bad it's funny, like a steven seagal movie, it's just bad. Save your money!