A good movie

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick (it was even on the list ‘1001 movies you must see before you die’ for a couple of years), I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, even though I did like it, I can’t say I was really blown away by the whole thing. Let’s start with the good stuff. Indeed, it was a solid British social drama, reminiscent of Ken Loach’s style and it was a very striking depiction of a teenage life in a barren social environment. Also, this young actress, Katie Jarvis, was pretty impressive but, on the other hand, since she played someone so close to herself, you might wonder if she was acting at all. As usual, the always dependable Michael Fassbender, one of the best actors of his generation, was really good as well. So, it was a good flick, that’s for sure, but I was missing something though. I mean, during the first 90 minutes, there was not much going on, reflecting the fruitless and hopeless life of the main character and, then it got pretty intense in the last 30 minutes, even though it was fairly predictable. Indeed, it was pretty obvious that she would have had sex with her mother’s boyfriend, it was also pretty obvious that he was already married with kids and it was again really obvious that the dance audition was for some kind of strip-club. On top of that, the ending was not really convincing. I mean, a random guy she just met tell her he wants to go to Cardiff and, that’s it, she’s got her ticket out of this mess. Still, in spite of these flaws, it remains a pretty good British social drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10