The Levelling

Awesome script, awesome actors, pretty sad story, so well done. Excellent.

"The Levelling" is one such movie. Shot in a naturalistic style, it truly feels as though you're learning more about this family than you should. It doesn't star anyone recognizable, giving a sense of realism. The young veterinarian's return to her family farm opens the door to multiple revelations not only about the recent tragedies, but about things that have been going on for a long time.

Only a few movies have been this much like a knife in the stomach. another was "The War Zone", about a family that discovers an ugly secret. I recommend both movies, and I'm eager to see Hope Dickson Leach's next movie.

A young woman (Kendrick) returns to the family farm after many years, due to tragedy -- her lone brother's apparent suicide -- and grapples with a difficult situation and a combative relationship with her father.

A very British film to me: fine performances from both Kendrick and Troughton both controlled and realistically playing their parts, moody well-shot rural scenes providing some atmosphere to the bleak world: yet also one exhaustively dour, thin on plot, drama.

It's clearly sincere in the portrayal of the realities of modern farming and rural life, which may well be it's main drive alongside the similar-yet-different father\daughter relationship, but this left me cold.

Clover, a veterinary student returns to the family farm following a bereavement in the family. Her father is struggling with grief over far more than this latest loss, having given up a military career to take over the farm decades earlier.

Death stalks the story as Clover's relationship with her father, mother, brother and even family dogs is explored. I almost had a feeling of in amongst the action, learning about real people through meeting them and picking up pieces of the jigsaw from each in turn. The story is so convincing that I could imagine it being filmed sequentially, with the actors learning plot twists just as we do.

Watching critically, there were perhaps two occasions when characters reacted in ways I had not expected, but I realised that they were correct and it was my anticipation that was wrong. Every revelation was something long known about but ignored or repressed. The jolt of parts falling into place was tangible; not just Clover but Aubrey and James too made discoveries about themselves and others around them.

There was minimal theatricality. Characters came and went with no introductions or explanations. Helen's character was a tiny joy, a gem of a part. The weakest character was the vicar arranging the funeral. I understand why it was necessary, but I would expect her to lead parishioners to their own conclusions, not trot out some amateur psychology. Her limited screen time would have had to be much longer to accommodate that.

Death, mud, decay, rain and stoic acceptance of tragedy run as constant themes. Images of hares play the role performed by background music in lesser films, with one swimming, then sinking lifelessly, only for the closing shot to be a hare running in the inevitable rain. No easy answers in this film, but an astonishingly brave exercise in respecting the audience to fill gaps rather than having the script explain everything.

I would be interested to know whether Hope Dickson Leach had the idea already and the real flood was a fortuitous coincidence, whether it was a hastily put together (probably largely improvised) story in response to the damage, or some other combination of theme and natural circumstance.

"The Levelling" is a film that was naturally melancholy with characters that had believable personalities. Artistically patient with a feeling of me spying on the characters in their quiet Somerset life.

This was a Drama in every form of the connotation. I felt the ratio for the gloom and melodrama didn't proportionately represent the problems and troubles we were being presented to on the screen. This was the hard sell for me. I feel this was more of a problem of it being a full feature film rather than a short film. To have the 1h23m time, they seemed to have built up the suspense of her brother's death as if some huge grand scheme was happening that she didn't know about while she was gone. It was difficult for me to really sympathize with the main character because I felt she had no real strings attached to the turmoil that she was in. She could of easily left and easy as she got in and there was no prior or present time introduction to strengthen how much her brother's death meant to her.

It did do a good job showing the hardships of catastrophe, disasters, and small mishaps that can shape our lives and change how we address people; even the ones we love.

It was a good film, nothing to write home about and all the actors played their part as intended. It would not be worth a watch more than once and if you are into dramas that actually show the shaping of character development, this is worth the time.