Rating: C+
Dir: Ryan J. Smith
Star: Ryan Davies, Rhiann Millington, Neizan Fernandez, Charlotte Dalton
There’s a sincerity and earnestness here, which is quite endearing. However, it feels like there’s a limit to how far sincerity and earnestness can take a film, even (or perhaps especially?) a low-budget one. I will admit, the genre here is not one in my wheelhouse. It’s hard to define, but drama-musical might be close. I’d say A Star is Born… if that was made for a few thousand quid, set in England, and considerably lower-key. Maybe. Sorta? Not really. It’s the story of soft-spoken music producer Robert (Davies), who is desperately trying to get an album finished for Niamh (Dalton), which could catapult her into stardom – but only if he can finish it on time, with mere days left.
If that’s not enough, he shares the family home with sister Roxy (Millington). He has to handle the drama of her relationship with Tristan (Fernandez), while also nurturing his own blossoming romance. All of which provides unwanted distraction from the task at hand. Especially after Niamh’s manager casually slashes the time Robert has, in order to meet with a potential record label. And they are still a track short for the album. However, in the attic, he stumbles across a box that belonged to his late father, who was also a musician, including a CD with some demo tracks. Maybe that will offer a lifeline, helping Robert to meet the ever more imminent deadline?
The film opens in that attic, twenty years earlier, with his Mom and Dad putting things away. It’s a lovely, poignant scene, full of lost ambition and found love, Dad sacrificing his own ambitions to raise his family. To be honest, there’s nothing quite as affecting the rest of the way, though some scenes work well enough. Surprisingly, it was Tristan who ended the most interesting character. At first, he seemed borderline abusive – maybe not even borderline. But as you learned about his own ambitions, you realized things were… more complex. It illustrates the need for any couple to have clear and open communication, especially about what they want from the relationship, otherwise they are going to end up pulling in opposite directions and hurting each other.
Less impressive was the music, though again, it might just not be my genre. The first song feels like it could be from the sixties – and I mean the eighteen sixties, since it almost has a music-hall vibe. They just didn’t feel like the kind of densely layered songs which would require all-night production sessions. As Northern music mavens go, Robert isn’t exactly Martin Hannett, and a rather bland character on which to hang a movie. However, it does feel like a lot of the criticisms I have are a “me” issue. If reports of the budget (four figures) and shooting schedule (eight days) are true, it’s impressive enough here to make me interested in seeing Smith’s previous work, whose synopses seem a bit closer to my kind of films. Stay tuned.