Director: Simon Bird
Starring: Monica Dolan, Earl Cave, Rob Brydon, Tamsin Greig, Alice Lowe, Elliot Speller-Gillott
Distributor: Limelight Films
Runtime: 86 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2021

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Rating notes: Coarse language

Daniel Bagnold, aged 15, was not expecting to spend his summer holiday at home in the suburbs with his divorced mother, Sue. He was to go to Florida to join his father who had left the family several years earlier and is now married, living in America, expecting a child with his young wife. Bags packed. Phone call. Don’t come at this time…

So, this turns out to be a variation on the family drama, taking place in the suburbs. It is the story of Daniel. It is the story of Sue. A great deal of the impact of the film, in its low-key way, comes from the performance by Monica Dolan (The Dig, and one of Alan Bennett’s dramatic television monologues, Talking Heads). She seems the perfect embodiment of the middle-aged woman, her husband having left her, still puzzling about that, trying to communicate with her moody 15-year-old son while holding down a librarian’s job, but enjoying some happy supportive chats with her sister.

Daniel is played by Earl Cave (who looks very much like a younger version of his father, Nick). He is lanky, lounges about with his long hair, listening to rock music, and frustrated with his mother and his not being able to go to the United States.

The behaviour of mother and son limits the action of the film which is rather episodic. Sue takes Earl to the mall to buy the shoes, they eat ice creams, at home Earl continues to frustrate his mother. Sue on the other hand encounters another teacher from school, Doug (Brydon), who invites her out on a date. A lot of excitement there but is there any future in it…? Then there is Astrid, a mother of one of Earl’s friends, who is into new age, massage, psychological advice (Greig who also appears in one of Bennett’s Talking Heads).

There is an amusing little subplot where Earl finds an advertisement asking for a singer for a band which operates from a garage – and, when he turns up, they are all 10-year-olds.

A film that will appeal more to the adult audience who can resonate with what Sue has experienced and continues to go through, especially towards the end when she and Earl go to a restaurant to celebrate her birthday and Earl is gallantly protects her when he sees Doug on a date, repeating the routine he used with Sue. Probably safe to say that an audience of Earl’s peers might be curious about seeing Earl and what is up to but not enough to sit through the whole film.

Ideal for those morning screenings at a local cinema followed by a nice morning tea or lunch.

Peter Malone MSC