A Night at Robert McAlisters

A Night at Robert Mc Alistair's is a film perched on a high-wire. It performs the rare feet of being subtle and harrowing.

Without breaking the reviewer's sacred rule, it manages to depict two realities in parallel, one inside the mind of its protagonist Robert Mc Alistair, a young musician on the verge of making it , and the external world during an evening his friends and fellow band members spend at his house.

It is subtle, because it is filmed in the style of a fly on the wall documentary, with good production values, which conceals the plot, without being distractingly or unfairly clever.

It is harrowing, because right from the moment Mc Alistair's voice over monologue begins, animated by the arresting juxtaposition of the placid normality, excitement, and optimism of his life, and his tormented inner world, we have a sense, not only that something is going to emerge from that dark hidden away place inside Robert, but that this reality, as dark and frightening as we see it depicted in front of us, is inside all of us, just waiting for a door to open, that will unleash the demon, for the moment it needs to create a little piece of Hell in our world.

As the impressive soundtrack builds, we become more and more convinced that something horrific is going to happen, but the actual events have yet to occur, and we don't know why we have this frayed sense of impending terror. While we wait, we of course hope that whatever we fear is going to happen, will be averted somehow, because Robert, portrayed by the excellent Dean Jagger , is another impressive balancing act.

He is simultaneously terrifying and sympathetic. He is a descent person put in an indecent situation, that destroys him and everything he could have been, and ultimately, this vulnerability, not the horror of the denouncement, is the terrifying point of the film. We all have a key, that certain people, probably those nearest and dearest to us, are trusted with, that has the power to turn our lives upside down.

For a short film to maintain tension is not particularly difficult, but for one to do so, encompassing pathos and terror, is an achievement, that anyone, not just first time independent film makers working on a shoestring budget, should be immensely proud.

Belief Films are a small UK based independent production company, headed by brothers Dean and Ben Jagger and Alistair Audsley. Such is the quality of their offering, A NIGHT AT ROBERT MCALISTERS, one could be forgiven for thinking it's the latest production from a long established stable. Yet it's their debut into the film market.

A taut, gripping piece of work, it presents what appears to be a typical night in for the Paddy Lincoln Band. Playing cards, drinking beer, jamming and 'guy talk', all painting a portrait of 4 close friends enjoying each others' company and generally 'shooting the breeze'. However right from the start there is a sinister undercurrent of tension, and this gradually builds throughout the film, racking up the suspense until a highly charged climax.

The actors all do justice to an roller-coaster of a screenplay, which demonstrates the multi-skilled talents of Belief's founders. In one of his first leading roles, Dean proves a strong range of skills in the leading role of Robert McAlister, whose 'tough guy' exterior masks an emotionally conflicted and indeed vulnerable man, who is forced to question everything he believes in. There are strong performances from Joseph Di-Masso, Richard Wagner and Demetri Watkins as his band members, and Jada Ford as his girlfriend, and the story is well woven together with some excellent direction from Ben, again making his debut.

James Rayner's excellent photography perfectly captures the nuances of style and mood that MCALISTER'S sets out to achieve. The film is complimented by a soundtrack from Colin McGuinness and Paul Smith that really supports the twists and turns of the narrative, mixing between high, lively energy to sinister and tense, and the editing skills of Karl Williams neatly dovetail in and out of Robert's dark world.

This all combines to ensure A NIGHT AT ROBERT MCALISTERS is a piece of cinema that deserves repeated viewing. It has already won much critical acclaim at international film festivals, and it is easy to see why. For an first product from a new independent production company, they show that, although it is early days for them all, they have an assured handle on their craft. Belief Films is one to keep watching.