Half Broken Things

I can't say I found this drama at all entertaining.

It started off ok with an interesting storyline but soon it degenerated to a level where it was impossible to have any sort of sympathy with the lead characters.

The inevitable ending was unfulfilling because there was no way that it could have ended positively.

Good performances, but flawed characters.

Downloaded from YouTube.

Once in a while, a tv drama grabs your attention and becomes memorable. This is a tale of desperate people flung together, making the best of their lives under a cloud of a big lie.

Great performances throughout.

Tim Fywell has been perhaps the best British television drama director for many years now, and it is a mystery why he has not been gobbled up by the big feature film producers yet. But here he is with his latest offering, and it is just as chilling and anxiety-producing as his eerie and unforgettable Barbara Vine dramas of the 1990s. This disturbing and nail-biting tale is based upon a novel by Morag Joss and is excellently scripted by Alan Whiting. What puts the whole project over the top into a realm of its own is the impeccable casting and the acting by the three principals. Penelope Wilton, Daniel Mays, and Sinead Matthews are so overwhelmingly convincing that one simply cannot imagine anybody else playing any of their roles. They absolutely became those people, to a terrifying degree. The intensity of this film is almost unbearable. The characters come together to live a dangerous joint fantasy life in somebody else's empty house. All of them are seriously damaged souls who have suffered terrible psychological deprivation or even physical abuse. In each other they finally find what they have always been looking for. But living a dream is dangerous, because there is something big and threatening called Reality which doesn't like people to do this and get away with it. What will happen? How bad can it get? The intensity rises, and rises, and rises. No pity is shown to the viewers who maybe can't stand all of this anxiety, want to turn it off, but can't. What solution can there possibly be? By now we are so enamoured of the three characters that we want them to win, they are all so endearing, so pathetic, so much at the very edge of human desperation and need. Why can't people who have been driven that far find some comfort and be entitled to it? And then the moral barriers begin to become permeable, and things begin to leak through, dripping, dripping, ominously. And the clock is ticking.

This is billed as a drama and thriller. It should, more correctly, be labeled as horror – and quite a suspenseful one at that.

The story concerns a fifty-nine-year-old woman (Penelope Wilton) who house-sits through an agency. She's been doing it for decades but, as we soon learn, this is her last job: when she turns sixty she'll be discharged with no prospects for further work. That type of future, of course, is a recipe for depression – and other things.

Coincidentally, we are introduced to a young con man (Daniel Mays) – but a likable one, sort of – who works the rural and suburban areas for objets d'art that he can steal and sell-on to shady dealers. He's currently on the run from one of his escapades that went wrong. And, while still running, so to speak, he comes across a battered woman (Sinead Mathews) at a petrol station who pleads with the young fellow to take her away – quickly, please quickly – from her abusive and violent partner. Being the good Samaritan, he impulsively does the right thing. Or, so he thinks.

Realizing that he needs more money now – with a woman on board and a pregnant one, at that – he sets out to find another easy mark somewhere. Ultimately, he decides to pull into the large mansion where the good house-sitter is ensconced, in the hope of perpetrating another con. Making that decision, however, seals the fate of all three - as well others...

There are three elements that help to keep this narrative flowing logically: first, the consistent adherence to cause and effect that determines plot; second, the psychology of the three main characters, each of whom needs psychological help like an alcoholic needs the next drink; and finally, a believable script that is thoughtfully presented and well acted out by the three protagonists/antagonists. It's almost unnecessary to say that the direction and editing are flawless.

Life is all about cause and effect, obviously. Everyday life is also about co-incidences, many of which are strange, even weird. Hence, the use of co-incidence as a plot device in this story is well within reasonable limits, I think. Some viewers might disagree, however.

The most unsettling aspect for me, and other perhaps, is that the whole story shows the extent to which seemingly average – whatever average means to you – people will go to protect their interests and well-being, including performing horrific acts when it appears no other option is available.

Who has never said "I'll kill you for that…"? Who has never had the darkest thoughts about how to handle a perceived enemy? Oh, I'm not excusing the horror of this story. I'm simply pointing out it's a very human story about many so-called average people; and three who throw caution to the winds and who make self-serving choices when escape seems impossible.

It's a story for adults, of course; I'd suggest that most teenagers would be bored, however.

Highly recommended.

December 11, 2011

There is something so utterly implausible about this story but it is done so well that you can't help being sucked in and believing it. For the film makers to depict three varying dysfunctional and desperate characters whose behaviour is so morally inexcusable yet still manage to generate empathy in the viewer shows a great deal of skill and professionalism. Penelope Wilton is excellent in her understated portrayal of Jean, a pathetic and lonely old woman who slowly descends into madness. The actors who play Steph and Michael are brilliant, too. This is down to a credible script and great directing, as well as heaps of skill by both of the performers.

Make no mistake, this film is tragic and so will not appeal to a lot. There is a desperation and darkness throughout which is tangible and reminiscent of the atmosphere created in 'The Visitor', although this story's protagonists are unhinged and not just desperate and lonely.

British film making at its most intense and best.