Love

This adaptation of the National Theatre play wants to look at the human costs of living below breadline Britain.

Three groups of people are living in temporary accommodation and all are strangers. Everyone is troubled, in need even if it just someone to talk to or just vent some frustration.

It looks at the annoyances of the benefits system. The alienation faced by foreigners.

You can see here as no one really mixes and if you are a foreigner then you are likely to be avoided.

It did not cut it for me as a drama. Maybe it was too abstract and just plain uninvolving.

I saw this in its original performance at the National theatre, and think this film adaptation is a really well produced piece of drama. It's so naturalistic and feels so real, just like the original play did. interesting to note what they changed and what they kept the same from the play, but anything that was changed definitely served the story even better. A very sad, but truthful glimpse into what life can be like for many people in our country at the moment. definitely makes you think about what more we could do for each other to help those in times of need.

I'm not sure who the intended audience is. If you watch a reasonable amount of news reports, you'll know how despicable the "safety net" is and this drama will tell you nothing new and will make you feel nothing more. If you're unaware of the problems of housing and temporary accommodation and of benefits grudgingly provided by the State, then this will inform you, but I'm not convinced it will make you care. And if you're a supporter of cuts to benefits and (historic) sales of council housing, then I doubt any of the characters presented here will elicit much sympathy (they seem so passive and disbelieving that the system really is as bad as it seems).

It might have been better to have followed the story of the family from their time in relatively stable privately rented housing, since I think that would have presented them in a much more sympathetic light.

I think there are too morals: first, we need to pay more tax to fund a decent "safety net" that none of us would find intolerable if we were to fall into it; second, people who fall into the current despicable "safety net" need to stop thinking that it is rational and reasonable and there to help.