Hallam Foe
Thursday, 30 Aug 2007 07:08
Jamie Bell's character meets the beautiful but hopeless-in-love Kate (Sophia Myles) who spookily looks just like his mum. He begins to spy on her
Directed by David Mackenzie, out August 31st, starring Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles, running time 95 minutes.
In a nutshell…
Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot fame grows up, gets a tattoo and shows the world he can play a cross-dressing voyeur in this charming Brit flick shot in the wilds of Scotland.
What's it all about?
Based on the novel of the same name, this film explores the odd life of a young Scottish teen called Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell) who, since his mother's death, has been obsessed with conspiracy theories about his dad (Ciaran Hinds) killing her so he can marry again. He fills his days boyishly spying on people like a voyeuristic Huckleberry Finn until, after a fleeting romp with his stepmother (Claire Forlani), he flees the family nest for the heady heights of Edinburgh.
Here, after getting a job in a hotel, he meets the beautiful but hopeless-in-love Kate (Sophia Myles) who spookily looks just like his mum. He begins to spy on her at night while getting to know her by day and soon they begin an ill-fated love affair. But Kate soon realises she is merely a reminder of his mother (and perhaps the huge age gap between them!) and finally persuades Hallam, after a dramatic scene where he tries to kill his stepmother, that he must stop replacing his own life with spying on other people's.
Who's it by?
David Mackenzie is the director behind Young Adam, starring Ewan MacGregor, and is somewhat king of the indie coming-of-age Brit flick while an energetic Jamie Bell plays the intriguing Hallam, impressing as an endearing misfit. Sophia Myles, the real-life girlfriend of Doctor Who's David Tennant, is a true leading lady here and sparkles as "the next Kate Winslet", adding depth and a refined beauty to the film. Together they are a young and exciting cast who make an otherwise bleak dialogue far more exuberant and dynamic.
As an example…
"I tend to focus on characters who are in some way outsiders are in touch with their essential loneliness. Hallam Foe shares these traits but he is 17 years old and is young enough and fresh enough to find hope and to redeem him situation," says director David Mackenzie.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammies
There's usually a big British hit each summer – but I don't think this is it, unless there are legions of Jamie Bell fans buying tickets. It is simply too gloomy for the majority and the light smattering of jokes does little to ward away the tedium of endless shots of Jamie and his telescope. Blockbuster this ain't but if you are willing to slow down for 90 minutes and enjoy a beautifully-crafted tale of Scottish adolescence, you could do worse than watch Hallam Foe.
So is it any good?
Annoyingly, this film is very brooding and very intense and sometimes it's difficult to decipher what the director's Big Hidden Message behind it is. Mackenzie seems to want to portray an epic coming-of-age using Hallam's voyeurism as a metaphor for the perils "which lie within looking at others instead of sorting out one's own life" or something, but this just isn't clear enough. Without reading the director's notes the film turns into simply teen drama, enchanting but never ground-breaking because Hallam just is what he is – a boy trying to cop a glance of women changing.
As a little bubble of teenage angst then, Hallam Foe is a sweet tale and very much in the vein of stereotypical gritty and depressing British film-making. Hallam and Kate's relationship is easily the best bit and the film's celebrated soundtrack really moves up a gear when the pair are in the city. You get the feeling that this is where Hallam is really growing up – because he's meeting girls, rather than in the super-loaded scenes of him spying on other people.
The tense relationship between stepmother, dad and son are also earnestly explored and the regrettable sex between Hallam and his step-mum is a huge highlight. But other than these fleeting moments of anger and sex, there is too little action going on and it all gets very slow and miserable.
Armchair psychologists look here: this film is for you if like poignant panoramas where you can speculate on secret psychoses to your heart's content but for anyone wanting all their strings neatly tied up at the end, this film will leave you disappointed.
6/10
Kate Lalor
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