> REVIEW
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Wreckers (2011)
Home sweet home…
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By Carol Vine | December 2011
WRITER/DIRECTOR: D.R. Hood
In her feature debut Wreckers, D.R. Hood has crafted a rich and complex emotional drama, beautifully shot, and moodily haunting, with undertones of psychological horror as a sense of unease ebbs gradually into the grainy realism.
The depiction of the crueller side of village life within the distinctive flat beauty of the Fenland countryside is believable, and avoids cliché with the sheer truthfulness and bright menace of the performances.
Newly married couple Dawn (Claire Foy) and David (Benedict Cumberbatch) have relocated from the city to his rural childhood home with the intention of renovating a charming but dilapidated cottage, and having a baby. But the arrival soon after of David’s brother Nick (Shaun Evans), on leave from the army, disrupts the couple’s ‘nesting’ before they’ve even really begun to negotiate the parameters of their young marriage.
Nick’s presence is immediately unsettling, as a subtly malign traumatised force. The horror of his experience in Afghanistan manifests itself in outpourings of inappropriate gossip, sleepwalking, waking nightmares and behaviour towards Dawn that wavers amiably between sexual suggestion and childlike dependence. Evans’s performance is brilliant from the outset. His smile is insistent and full of pain.
This is an overtly character led piece, and the film’s main strength is to usurp our character expectations – more than once disarming us with an unexpected emotion / sympathy where we’d have expected to feel disgust, or at the very least distaste. There are many surprising and genuinely touching elements, and in spite of their flaws, Hood evokes genuine empathy with the protagonists. Strangely, it is Nick who demands the most sympathy. He’s a child who has seen awful things. In spite of first appearances, his disquiet is ultimately more vulnerability than malice.
On the flip side, far more sinister are the two childhood friends – the almost comically-named Gary (Peter McDonald) and Sharon (Sinead Matthews). These two, now a couple, are bordering on repellent with their ugly comments, behaviour and selfishness – perhaps a slightly too obvious ‘measure’ by which we care more intensely for the others.
Visually, the film is exquisite with gorgeous, grainy detail and nakedly exposing closeness. One memorable scene where the brothers meet for the first time in years, the gentle rain beginning to fall in the background, is beautifully, hauntingly English. For all the weakness of the dialogue, Hood’s creation of emotion and tone are perfect.
The film’s pacing is confident, with twists and turns of revelation as the innocent Dawn begins to discover a darker, more violent side to her husband’s history and character. There’s perhaps slightly too much repetition of ‘similar’ scenes, but in spite of this there is a definite, difficult sense that something will give, something awful will blow.
Hood delicately maintains the restraint (in spite of the occasional outburst of Nick’s nightmares), and rightly keeps the mood simmering and taut. When the revelations do come, they are short-lived and underplayed to effect. The sexual twists are almost mechanical, and as the film develops we realise that something far deeper is playing itself out. David’s eventual decision seems right, and meaningful, but it also seems like a sacrifice.
The only flaw, and not a huge one, is in the writing. The depth and complexity of the performances is not present in the script, which is adequate but underwritten. It’s sparse without the necessary layering of subtext. It is, simply, just sparse. But for all this, the work depicts a love and emotion more profound, unshakeable and terrible than the fragility suggested by the first two acts. The bonds, rooted in blood, stick in the mind like a lovely thorn.
Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….
In spite of the overall accomplishment of the film, the script is somewhat underwritten, though it hits the beats and allows plenty of freedom for the actors.
3
Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..
A confident debut, Hood artfully combines poignancy and tension, and creates a sense of something twisted, chilling and ultimately redemptive within the
physical and emotional landscape. 4
Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..
A slow burning, compelling piece led by strength of performance and intimate
style. The ambiguity, bravely, leaves much room for thought. 4
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