Rating: B-
Dir: Nathan Shepka
Star: Nicolette McKeown, Nathan Shepka, Stephen Kerr, Olly Bassi
There are certain events in movies which are rarely a good thing for the characters involved. This film opens with one such scenario, with the air of an invitation to almost certain doom. A remote cottage, with a woman alone. A literally dark and stormy night. A knock at the door. After some resistance, she lets the man in. What could possibly go wrong? It’s no spoiler to say that subsequent events do, indeed, turn out to be pear-shaped. However, probably not in the way you expect. Indeed, at one stage toward the end, I found myself wondering, how the hell we had got here from there. Almost everything you might expect from the initial scenario is wrong.
The woman is Angela (McKeown), whose large, apparently abusive husband Eddie (Bassi), is out at work. The man is Kevin (Shepka), who claims that his car broke down and he needs shelter. Neither are exactly being honest about… Close to anything. But they both need something from each other – whether it will end up being willingly given, or coerced. Complicating matters further: the arrival on Angela’s doorstep of a local police officer (Kerr). He’s looking for a fugitive, who escaped while being transported, and is believed to be in the area. Or is this a cop at all? For we gradually learn about each character, and I’m reminded of the Robert Evans quote: “There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth”.
It’s been interesting to follow Shepka’s evolution as a film-maker over time. The cheap and cheerful action of Holiday Monday seems a lot longer than four years ago. Since then, he has been steadily more interested in exploring darker themes. Dead Before They Wake was the clearest example; Pines operates on a smaller, and more confined level. Yet it is hardly any less psychologically bleak. The answer to the question of who is “good” and who is “bad”, becomes increasingly murky, the deeper we get. The script, by Tom Jolliffe, who also worked with Shepka on The Baby in the Basket earlier this year, does a very good job dispensing information. I found myself adjusting my perceptions every few minutes, once things got going.
There are some moments where characters behave in apparent defiance of common sense. Angela letting Kevin into her house to begin with, is the first and most obvious example. However, subsequent events do explain, or least excuse, most of these. The same goes for what could be seen as occasionally awkward moments of performance. Again, in hindsight, it seems to be the case that both lead characters are pretending, to various degrees – and aren’t necessarily great at it. This interpretation offers an unexpected level of nuance. For a film basically set in one location, with a handful of characters, it feels like there could be unexpected, hidden depths to be mined.
[The film is available to stream now, through Amazon Prime and other services]