For Those in Peril

A sensitive, childlike young man (George Mackay) is the sole survivor of a tragedy at sea. Upon his dazed return, the superstious inhabitants of this remote Scottish fishing village become increasingly hostile towards him, convinced he was responsible for the incident. Cruelly ostracized, his unerring belief that his brother didn't perish at sea compulsively pushes him ever deeper into obsession and one final mad desperate act of salvation. This beautifully bleak, folk horror-inflected drama benefits enormously from the sublime cast's natural, unaffected performances, and gifted writer/director Paul Wright strikingly proves himself a more than capable helmsman. Having an undeniably haunting quality, 'For Those in Peril' is steeped in an oblique mysticism that I strongly connected with, and the wyrd, Lovecraftian climax is quite delicious!

Thanks to her role in 'Game of Thrones', the biggest name (okay, pretty much the *only* name) in 'For Those in Peril' is Kate Dickie. But she's not the lead: that responsibility falls to the husky young George MacKay. He plays Aaron, the sole survivor of a trawler tragedy which claimed the lives of five other men (one of whom was his brother). The small, close-knit fishing community regard him with suspicion: why did he survive when everyone else died? Only his mother (Dickie, adding to her extensive repertoire of Working-Class-Women-Who-Nobly-Suffer) and his brother's fiancée have kind words to say to him. Gradually, Aaron becomes more and more withdrawn and disturbed. If you think this is the kind of story that can only end in tears, you'll be right, sort of.

The film makes much use of home-video footage to show the close relationship of Aaron and his brother, and voice-over vox-pop interviews with the villagers to explain their feelings about his survival. I thought these were clever devices, as they added to the realism of the piece: and there is a very strong sense of realism about the film (even leading man MacKay's acne is not covered with make-up). But that makes the ending such a rude shock: what had seemed to be a portrayal of one man's mental breakdown under unbearable grief and guilt instead veers into fantasy and fairytale. That, I felt, spoiled things.

The acting? As I said above, Dickie has played this part several times before, and she does it as well as she ever does. MacKay could perhaps have been a bit less monotone and starey - but hats off to him for the many scenes where he had to swim in what must have been the freezing waters of the North Sea - he should get a medal!

Weird and wonderful. It's an experimental film, so don't expect a conventional narrative. Great acting, gorgeous cinematography.

Aaron is the sole survivor of a fishing boat accident that still pains the community. Having lost his brother in the accident, Aaron grieves, but his grief gives way to an increasingly fragile grip on reality. For Those In Peril could have been a myth-imbibed exploration of tragedy and sibling rivalry. It could have been an insightful depiction of unhinged grief. It could have been a story of personal redemption achieved in the face of a hostile community. While it hints at exploring all of these potential story lines, what it ends up being is an under-realised mish-mash that fails to cohere around any thematic, emotional or narrative thread. The film ever-so studiously chases art-house credentials, but invokes clunky genre devices that would make Michael Bay blush. For example, there is no need to wonder what the community makes of Aaron's miraculous survival of the tragedy, as this is relayed constantly in off-screen expositional comments by various bystanders. The cliché scene where someone with a lot on their mind dries up in front of a karaoke audience, so often seen on screen but never in real life, makes a jaded outing here. (Who in real life would ever ask a grieving mother to get on stage and sing karaoke?). You do not have to have spent time in fishing communities such as Ullapool and Shetland to feel the lack of authenticity of setting, though it will jar all the more if you have. Similarly, if you have known grief, Kate Dickie's one-note moping around will not invite empathy. In terms of a mind becoming unhinged, the film does better, with George MacKay's performance occasionally evoking both fear and concern. But these moments are far too few, as the script seems unable to handle the task of developing rounded characters, and falls back instead on lazy invocation of myth to bind the story, what there is of it, together. I am all for eschewing linear narrative in favour of an immersive experience, but none of the imagery is particularly memorable. The climax places its bet on one striking image, but instead that is fudged in an extreme wide shot, suggesting the production design of the model was not up to the job of providing the emotional whump this film requires at its end. Ostensibly bold and experimental, this film instead is tame and unimaginative. Perhaps learning how to handle the basics of simple story, well-told, would have been a better move for these clearly uninspired filmmakers.

Paul Wright's imaginative take on grief, 'For Those In Peril', tells the story of a young man who survives a fishing accident only to be blamed by his community for coming back alive. This could be a really powerful story, not just about loss, but also about how social normality hides the terrible reality that we do not in fact love one another in equal amounts. Yet the construction of the film is part that of a documentary, and in part mystical in affect; and the two aspects prove a slightly awkward fit: it was well acted, but I found it less moving than I felt I should have done. There's also an oddity that, perhaps because of funding, the film is set in Scotland but appears to have been partly filmed in Yorkshire, a minor incongruity, but pointless and thus grating.