The Road Dance

Not sure why this film is not promoted more it's certainly deserves to be.

For a start the scenery is absolutely stunning and provides a backdrop to a very sombre and dark tail.

The acting is superb, top notch, by some great actors and they tell the tale so well.

The cinematography is as exciting as the rugged foreshore and sea.

The story takes place around the midpoint of the First World War in a remote settlement as far away from the front lines as possible. However it is not a war film. It's a film about how a community comes together under difficult times, and how a family struggles in the bleakest of existences.

Without spoilers I will see there are a few hooks in this film that will certainly rock rock in your seat.

Definitely well worth watching.

Stunningly Filmed, beautifully felt... a perfect period piece that was felt by all in the cinema. I very much enjoyed this whole film. A little bit of everything for me. Location, accents, romance, heart ache, strong women, heroic men, mystery and love. The close up vision of each actress and actor were stunning and gentle. I would highly recommend seeing this one on a big screen if possible, to appreciate the grand, vast lands that the film was set in. Thank you for a story so beautifully told. Critics that did not enjoy this film, would be hard pressed to please, perfect for this very busy time of the year.

I don't know why nobody is talking about this film. What starts out as a Catherine Cookson-esque costume drama in the Outer Hebrides during the First World War, complete with love triangles and suppressed passion - the kind of twee romance you've seen a thousand times before - morphs into something dark, gripping and gut-wrenchingly painful that leaves you exhausted but strangely uplifted by the end credits.

The power of this film lies in its authenticity and its ability to get into the skin of a character and allow you to see the world through her eyes. For an actress, it's the role of a lifetime, and Hermione Corfield is phenomenal, bringing you along with her through every trauma and every heartbreak. It is this central performance that really elevates the material to something that stands out from the crowd.

It's not for everyone. It moves at a slow and sedate pace, lingering in the landscape and giving scenes the space to breathe. And a warning: it can be quite triggering if you've experienced past traumas. But ultimately, this is a story about survival and about resilience in the face of the agonies women are often faced with. The only negative is the rather saccharin final scene. If they'd ended it a scene earlier, I'd probably give this a ten. But it is inspired by a true story, so perhaps it's true to life. The Road Dance certainly deserves a wider audience.

A reasonable film, well acted and beautifully shot.

A tragidrama in many ways, with a bit of mystery thrown in too, the themes of futility in war and also that of women's roles in early 20th century and the associated hardships and cultural taboos that come with that territory are all well-explored.

The film has two weaknesses in my view, the first is the ending - I won't go into too much detail but it is disappointing and departs from what it was building up to. The film would be an 8/10 if it finished ten mins earlier.

The 2nd is the setting and language. It isn't believable for a small Lewis village to be entirely English speaking in 1916 (it isn't believable in rural Lewis in 2023 even), which jars from fully immersing in the scene and finding it realistic.

This could have been circumnavigated either by having the film at least bilingual between Scottish Gaelic and English, or by setting the film somewhere just as rugged and isolated in Scotland but known to be English speaking eg. Shetland or Orkney would have worked just as well, and then slightly changing the rural activity from potato crofting to something else to suit the different location if needed.

Insisting on keeping the setting as Lewis, and even more so in that time, but with a 100% English language film was a mistake in my book.

Still a solid watch all the same, where you root for the protagonist.

Saw this last night and went in knowing nothing. It blew me away with the exceptional performances, as well as how well written and beautifully shot it is. It is an extremely difficult watch at points, as it has some brutal moments, but it's never gratuitous.