The Caravan

When Keith Langley ex rugby star and current coach loses his wife to cancer he has to contend with the return of his son James. They have never got on and the mother was the only person keeping them vaguely connected to one another. As her final act she has tried to reconnect them by making them work on a caravan together over the course of 7 days. Will it bring them closer or move them apart for good?

I love British cinema. When new talent comes to the surface it is both exciting and a blow for the brilliant film makers we have on these shores. This film is one of those releases that has great promise, with a superb premise and a director that seems to have an eye for beauty. You have a few cast members that you might know and the film fits well into those 'kitchen sink' and 'social realism' dramas that this country has proudly been at the center of. All this might have made an amazing film. Sadly it falls apart at the execution phase. So how did a great construction start as the St Paul's cathedral and end up as the Bull ring?

I will be honest here and start by saying that the acting is dull and uninspired, more than probable it is the direction that has caused this. It is only when Shirley Henderson turns up does this improve but only shortly as she is under used, with less than 10 minutes of screen time (I guess this was a budget thing). The film is shot in a very lethargic style, with some shots being held far to long (editing would be to blame here!). Then we have the compositions that are empty and uninspired again. My final compliant is in the films genre convention. Stuck within a world of British drama and social commentary, it seems to want also to be a buddy movie. By shifting the focus around you often find that film makers cant quite gauge what the audience want. We have the premise from a buddy movie and this would have been a brilliant buddy movie type film.

I had to find a positive and have to justify the 6 below. Well it is in the fact that this film has so much promise. Powell can direct as is evident in his early montage scene. He has an eye and I feel it was lost due to time. This means that the producers need to give the director more time. To create a film worthy of praise and awards. The other positive is that Shirley still looks good after so many years. My crush on her from Hamish Macbeth is still secretly burning....





to a serious drama and not having any jokes