Lead actors were very convincing and natural, I'm guessing a few of the small parts were played by non actors which i love and thought it added even more authenticity, the inner city settings and photography were gritty and real, an area which had obviously been excluded in so many ways and that grim reality was truly captured by the film. Story kept me guessing all the way through which i like, i did think i had the plot figured out at one point but i was way off the mark. Loved the general pace of the story and the fact that the script was so honest and uncompromising. I also enjoyed the more general theme of our living in a society in which we are being watched constantly without our knowledge and the privacy questions that generates. Highly recommended.
70 Reviews
Rawness, despair and resurrection in Glasgow
Martin-Winbolt-Lewis1 November 2006
I saw the trailer of this a few weeks ago and some of the mysterious and bleak nature of the shorts clips prompted that little voice inside me, saying " you won't be comfortable with it, but see it." I wasn't and I did.
The plot unravels slowly with little hints as to its central theme dotted about sensitively. It has you asking the question, what has happened to Jackie? How does this figure Clyde she has recognised and recoiled from on the CCTV monitors at work impacted on her lonely and monochrome life ? The answers come quite slowly as she puts her head into the lion's jaws of proximity to this danger man. A bit like the pantomime responses I felt like saying, " No, don't go any closer,he's behind you; you'll be recognised.", failing to recognise myself that something in her wants exactly that. In fact she receives from him perversely, what no viewer might possibly expect, but then she has us asking, is this payback time ? I'm not telling you, see the film ! The unfinished business Jackie has with Clyde is what this film is about.
The raw,down-at-heel, desperate, littered, high rise and windy Glasgow streets and housing estates as the backdrop. Ordinary everyday people get on with their lives oblivious of the drama being enacted in Jackie's life and culminating in an protracted showdown. But this is not the end. No, for all the unresolved grief, anger, erotic fascination and damaged lives, there remains a hope born of the unlikely. The film leads you away from the possibility, but ultimately there is life after death in Red Road. No cheering music soundtrack intrudes to romanticise what cannot possibly yield to only to the mawkish. There is just silence, sounds of the street, machinery, public transport and some well chosen tracks to create mood when required. This is what the vintage among us identify as continental cinema, no wonder they loved it at Cannes. This is not a film for audiences to remain detached from; the sheer intimacy of the camera work and the evolving personal destinies involved get you involved too, uncomfortably. A home grown vignette of humanity wrestling with the s..t that regularly happens !
The plot unravels slowly with little hints as to its central theme dotted about sensitively. It has you asking the question, what has happened to Jackie? How does this figure Clyde she has recognised and recoiled from on the CCTV monitors at work impacted on her lonely and monochrome life ? The answers come quite slowly as she puts her head into the lion's jaws of proximity to this danger man. A bit like the pantomime responses I felt like saying, " No, don't go any closer,he's behind you; you'll be recognised.", failing to recognise myself that something in her wants exactly that. In fact she receives from him perversely, what no viewer might possibly expect, but then she has us asking, is this payback time ? I'm not telling you, see the film ! The unfinished business Jackie has with Clyde is what this film is about.
The raw,down-at-heel, desperate, littered, high rise and windy Glasgow streets and housing estates as the backdrop. Ordinary everyday people get on with their lives oblivious of the drama being enacted in Jackie's life and culminating in an protracted showdown. But this is not the end. No, for all the unresolved grief, anger, erotic fascination and damaged lives, there remains a hope born of the unlikely. The film leads you away from the possibility, but ultimately there is life after death in Red Road. No cheering music soundtrack intrudes to romanticise what cannot possibly yield to only to the mawkish. There is just silence, sounds of the street, machinery, public transport and some well chosen tracks to create mood when required. This is what the vintage among us identify as continental cinema, no wonder they loved it at Cannes. This is not a film for audiences to remain detached from; the sheer intimacy of the camera work and the evolving personal destinies involved get you involved too, uncomfortably. A home grown vignette of humanity wrestling with the s..t that regularly happens !
Bleakly Optimistic
That rare thing. A superb British movie. Set in an unremittingly bleak Glasgow focused on a multi-storey housing estate in the East End of that city, this is NOT the usual kitchen-sink or slice-of-life telly-style drama that nearly always make a disheartening prospect for cinema-going. This is a complex character-driven piece, beautifully shot and edited. Scenes are allowed space and time to breathe in their own life. It never tells the audience what to think, how to feel, or even what's going on. Yet ultimately the movie tells of a struggle against loss and grief and there is a redemptive quality which is hard-won by the director. The surveillance aspect is brilliantly handled by mixing in low-res grainy footage of surveyed scenes scanning and zooming in on actual streets (and some of the locals) and allowing the audience to figure out what is going on along with the operative. It suggested a knee-jerk parallel with Haneke's Cache (Hidden), but this a completely different take more closely paralleling Coppola's 'The Conversation' and suggesting that the effects of surveillance may be more acutely felt by the observer than the observed. The acting by the entire cast is pitch-perfect. The highly explicit sex scene is, for once, completely warranted and the sexual tension in the relationship is reminiscent of Roeg's 'Bad Timing'. But this is a film which gains a lot of power by being deeply-rooted in its time and place and doesn't need to look back. Utterly assured and contemporary, like 'Morvern Callar', it is very much what is happening NOW. And whenever the journalistic blah about a boom in Scottish film inevitably subsides, the country will be left with something more potent than bloody 'Gregory's Girl' as a benchmark for what can be achieved with a small-scale budget and Scottish/Scotland-based directors.
atyson16 November 2006
- A female cctv operative discovers in the course of her work that a criminal has been released from jail early for good behaviour. She takes a very personal interest in him..-
That rare thing. A superb British movie. Set in an unremittingly bleak Glasgow focused on a multi-storey housing estate in the East End of that city, this is NOT the usual kitchen-sink or slice-of-life telly-style drama that nearly always make a disheartening prospect for cinema-going. This is a complex character-driven piece, beautifully shot and edited. Scenes are allowed space and time to breathe in their own life. It never tells the audience what to think, how to feel, or even what's going on. Yet ultimately the movie tells of a struggle against loss and grief and there is a redemptive quality which is hard-won by the director. The surveillance aspect is brilliantly handled by mixing in low-res grainy footage of surveyed scenes scanning and zooming in on actual streets (and some of the locals) and allowing the audience to figure out what is going on along with the operative. It suggested a knee-jerk parallel with Haneke's Cache (Hidden), but this a completely different take more closely paralleling Coppola's 'The Conversation' and suggesting that the effects of surveillance may be more acutely felt by the observer than the observed. The acting by the entire cast is pitch-perfect. The highly explicit sex scene is, for once, completely warranted and the sexual tension in the relationship is reminiscent of Roeg's 'Bad Timing'. But this is a film which gains a lot of power by being deeply-rooted in its time and place and doesn't need to look back. Utterly assured and contemporary, like 'Morvern Callar', it is very much what is happening NOW. And whenever the journalistic blah about a boom in Scottish film inevitably subsides, the country will be left with something more potent than bloody 'Gregory's Girl' as a benchmark for what can be achieved with a small-scale budget and Scottish/Scotland-based directors.
Dystopia on the Clyde
Camera-Obscura26 February 2007
Produced in collaboration with Lars von Trier's production house Zentropa and based on characters created by Lone Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen, this debut feature by Oscar-winning Andrea Arnold is the first British feature filmed under the rigid Dogma-principles. I guess I'll never become a big fan of Dogma-style film-making, but I must admit, this was a well-structured and ultimately intriguing piece of film-making, if you can make it to the final half hour, when part of the story is resolved and some sorely needed background information is given.
We meet a woman (Kate Dickie) who works as a CCTV operator, obsessively observing the residents in a run-down housing estate in Glasgow. She seems obsessed by her work, compensating for her non-existent social life. Most of the story revolves around a dire housing estate, a huge 25-floor tower, on Red Road, from which the film got its title. On day, when she zooms in on a man having some back-alley sex with a young woman, she recognizes him and starts tracking his every move on camera, but in real life as well, even insinuating herself into his life, going to his apartment and even attending a party he's giving. Obviously, she has some shared experience from the past with this man. At first, it seems an ex-husband/boyfriend, but soon it becomes obvious he doesn't know her, apart from a vague recollection, "haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Who is he and foremost, what on earth could this woman possibly want from him? The film keeps you guessing till the very end. Perhaps a bit too long. For almost 90 minutes you keep wondering why the hell she goes through all this trouble meeting this mysterious fellow. Till then we're fishing in the dark.
The film is greatly bolstered by two extremely convincing performances. Kate Dickie commits herself to this role with such vigour, her every move comes off completely believable, despite her motivations are hard to understand, while Tony Curran's performance ranges from very frightening to even touching at times. It's interesting enough to keep watching, but only just, till the end, when the elements fall in place. The prominence of CCTV surveillance in the film and how far it has penetrated Britons everyday lives (and increasingly in other parts of the world as well), is quite revealing and disturbing as well. Since a large part of the film consists of CCTV-images and is strained by Dogma-rules in the first place, the images are not always pleasing for the eye. But some beautifully shot night scenes around Red Road-estate and the two powerhouse performances by the leads largely make up for some shortcomings in the film's narrative.
Camera Obscura --- 7/10
We meet a woman (Kate Dickie) who works as a CCTV operator, obsessively observing the residents in a run-down housing estate in Glasgow. She seems obsessed by her work, compensating for her non-existent social life. Most of the story revolves around a dire housing estate, a huge 25-floor tower, on Red Road, from which the film got its title. On day, when she zooms in on a man having some back-alley sex with a young woman, she recognizes him and starts tracking his every move on camera, but in real life as well, even insinuating herself into his life, going to his apartment and even attending a party he's giving. Obviously, she has some shared experience from the past with this man. At first, it seems an ex-husband/boyfriend, but soon it becomes obvious he doesn't know her, apart from a vague recollection, "haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Who is he and foremost, what on earth could this woman possibly want from him? The film keeps you guessing till the very end. Perhaps a bit too long. For almost 90 minutes you keep wondering why the hell she goes through all this trouble meeting this mysterious fellow. Till then we're fishing in the dark.
The film is greatly bolstered by two extremely convincing performances. Kate Dickie commits herself to this role with such vigour, her every move comes off completely believable, despite her motivations are hard to understand, while Tony Curran's performance ranges from very frightening to even touching at times. It's interesting enough to keep watching, but only just, till the end, when the elements fall in place. The prominence of CCTV surveillance in the film and how far it has penetrated Britons everyday lives (and increasingly in other parts of the world as well), is quite revealing and disturbing as well. Since a large part of the film consists of CCTV-images and is strained by Dogma-rules in the first place, the images are not always pleasing for the eye. But some beautifully shot night scenes around Red Road-estate and the two powerhouse performances by the leads largely make up for some shortcomings in the film's narrative.
Camera Obscura --- 7/10
believable realism, complex and interesting characters
Rob-O-Cop3 December 2007
This movie is a slow but engaging film about loss, guilt, and urban life in Scotland. I found it intriguing to watch the lives of lower class people in Scotland and its unglamorised portrayal of daily existence in high rise apartment blocks. Messy flats, shitty greasy spoon diners, laundromats, housing blocks with no frills, no trees, just like the real thing.
The surveillance camera cop was interesting in itself, but the story was almost a bit part player in this film. yes it was interesting and the way it was unveiled without giving away any details before you absolutely had to know them was well paced.
But the characters were the most interesting thing, This is bleak, modern, urban life, real and uncompromising. Not overly ugly, just raw and real, and interesting.
The surveillance camera cop was interesting in itself, but the story was almost a bit part player in this film. yes it was interesting and the way it was unveiled without giving away any details before you absolutely had to know them was well paced.
But the characters were the most interesting thing, This is bleak, modern, urban life, real and uncompromising. Not overly ugly, just raw and real, and interesting.
Pretty but slow
brittanyandres20 May 2006
The movie is beautifully shot but is so slow moving in the beginning that it might turn some viewers off. However, if you can bear with it, the last forty minutes are brilliant. The portrayal of a broken-hearted woman and her desperation for vengeance isn't of the stereotypical sort. Instead the audience is never really clued in to exactly what her motivations are, just that she has a reason. The twist and reveal are handled with deft emotion. The character of Clyde is an interesting one because you never really get a handle on him till the final moments of the film. It is the emotion of the film that makes the audience hold on until the very last moments, though the sex doesn't hurt either. Until it does, of course.
Experimental fimmakers successfully rearing their artistic head
Chris_Docker30 October 2006
The slowly unravelling character and background of a CCTV operator form the plot of this gripping and unsettling, low-budget, yet very professionally made film. Jackie's job is to watch the feed from closed circuit cameras sited in the less desirable areas of Glasgow (including a street called Red Road), and liaising with the police where possible to help track or prevent crime. She's a dour Scots lass who gives little away, and we build up a picture of her life very efficiently in the first few varied and colourful short scenes - her working life, her social life, her sex life and (at the edge of it) her family life.
She starts to follow an ex-con who she recognises on the cameras, eventually ingratiating herself into his life. We are kept in the dark for a very long time as to her motives and simply feel an insidious, creeping tension as she takes risks. That we become so glued to what she is up to is a great credit to the skillful characterisation and acting. It's one of those films where, if you want to feel the full impact of the surprises, the less you know about the story the better. The title maybe also suggests a path of sexual tension and danger that the protagonist feels she has to follow. The final denouement brings a surprise emotional enlightenment. If you dislike independent film-making or are averse to explicit sex, avoid Red Road; otherwise make a bee-line to see one of the most original and capable films to come out of Scotland.
Delving into the world of CCTV also opens up other questions. Britain has a very high deployment of CCTV - according to one estimate, the average Briton is recorded by CCTV cameras 300 times a day (director Andrea Arnold says in an interview that twenty per cent of all the CCTV cameras in the world are in Britain) - and there are also concerns about privacy and abuse. The film doesn't argue for or against - it seems realistic - but in portraying 'a face that watches the footage' it allows us to picture what it is maybe like on the other side of the camera when we form our ideas about the social dilemmas.
Although Red Road has been roundly praised, it is not immediately clear why it is so successful. There is very little substantive action for a long time and little of the obvious attention grabbers such as violence or heavy romance. Although it seems to be directed on a very tight leash, part of the credit no doubt should also go to Lone Scherfig (characterisation is done in part by Scherfig as collaborator), and with whose background there is a discernible connection.
Danish Director Scherfig rose to fame with Italian for Beginners, one of the successful films to be made under the strict discipline of the austere Dogme95 rules. While Red Road uses little of the formal laws of the back-to-basics Dogme system, the lessons learnt are evident: a lack of intrusive background music, no superficial action or definable genre, and so on. The reliance is on the characters themselves, and in working in the development of the Red Road characters Scherfig's genius is shining through. We feel, just as we did in her Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, that the people have just walked off the streets of Glasgow (or are still walking about on them). This style of realism is also discernible in the first British Dogme film, Gypo, released about the same time as Red Road, and together they form almost a new thread in British cinema. Whatever the reasons or antecedents, Red Road is a film of remarkable ingenuity aimed at an intelligent adult audience.
The background to the creation of Red Road is that it forms part of a project called Advance Party. Scherfig and her collaborator, in accordance with the experiment, presented the fully fledged characters to director Andrea Arnold who then wrote the plot around them. They have a life of their own instead of being altered to fit a storyline. The creative genius behind the idea, as with Dogme, is Lars von Trier. In the hands of Oscar-winning director Arnold, we again see art and new creative processes forcing their head through the much-abused medium of cinema.
She starts to follow an ex-con who she recognises on the cameras, eventually ingratiating herself into his life. We are kept in the dark for a very long time as to her motives and simply feel an insidious, creeping tension as she takes risks. That we become so glued to what she is up to is a great credit to the skillful characterisation and acting. It's one of those films where, if you want to feel the full impact of the surprises, the less you know about the story the better. The title maybe also suggests a path of sexual tension and danger that the protagonist feels she has to follow. The final denouement brings a surprise emotional enlightenment. If you dislike independent film-making or are averse to explicit sex, avoid Red Road; otherwise make a bee-line to see one of the most original and capable films to come out of Scotland.
Delving into the world of CCTV also opens up other questions. Britain has a very high deployment of CCTV - according to one estimate, the average Briton is recorded by CCTV cameras 300 times a day (director Andrea Arnold says in an interview that twenty per cent of all the CCTV cameras in the world are in Britain) - and there are also concerns about privacy and abuse. The film doesn't argue for or against - it seems realistic - but in portraying 'a face that watches the footage' it allows us to picture what it is maybe like on the other side of the camera when we form our ideas about the social dilemmas.
Although Red Road has been roundly praised, it is not immediately clear why it is so successful. There is very little substantive action for a long time and little of the obvious attention grabbers such as violence or heavy romance. Although it seems to be directed on a very tight leash, part of the credit no doubt should also go to Lone Scherfig (characterisation is done in part by Scherfig as collaborator), and with whose background there is a discernible connection.
Danish Director Scherfig rose to fame with Italian for Beginners, one of the successful films to be made under the strict discipline of the austere Dogme95 rules. While Red Road uses little of the formal laws of the back-to-basics Dogme system, the lessons learnt are evident: a lack of intrusive background music, no superficial action or definable genre, and so on. The reliance is on the characters themselves, and in working in the development of the Red Road characters Scherfig's genius is shining through. We feel, just as we did in her Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, that the people have just walked off the streets of Glasgow (or are still walking about on them). This style of realism is also discernible in the first British Dogme film, Gypo, released about the same time as Red Road, and together they form almost a new thread in British cinema. Whatever the reasons or antecedents, Red Road is a film of remarkable ingenuity aimed at an intelligent adult audience.
The background to the creation of Red Road is that it forms part of a project called Advance Party. Scherfig and her collaborator, in accordance with the experiment, presented the fully fledged characters to director Andrea Arnold who then wrote the plot around them. They have a life of their own instead of being altered to fit a storyline. The creative genius behind the idea, as with Dogme, is Lars von Trier. In the hands of Oscar-winning director Arnold, we again see art and new creative processes forcing their head through the much-abused medium of cinema.
Scotland looks less pleasant than I usually think
lee_eisenberg23 September 2007
When I turned on "Red Road", I had pretty much no idea what the plot was, but I was rather impressed. Watching the woman spend her days keeping an eye on everyone through the secret cameras, it's no surprise that she would want to find something new in life...though the new something turns out to be not all that pleasant.
Now, this is not a masterpiece by any stretch, but easily better than the average Hollywood flick; for starters, it features a much more realistic sex scene than I'm used to. Half the time, I couldn't totally understand the characters' heavy Scottish accents (but don't get me wrong: I like hearing people's accents). Probably the main thing that I derived from this film is that while Scotland is probably a great place, it does look like a less pleasant place that I usually assumed. Or maybe it's just because this movie shows the seedy areas in Glasgow.
Overall, I'm glad that I saw this movie.
Now, this is not a masterpiece by any stretch, but easily better than the average Hollywood flick; for starters, it features a much more realistic sex scene than I'm used to. Half the time, I couldn't totally understand the characters' heavy Scottish accents (but don't get me wrong: I like hearing people's accents). Probably the main thing that I derived from this film is that while Scotland is probably a great place, it does look like a less pleasant place that I usually assumed. Or maybe it's just because this movie shows the seedy areas in Glasgow.
Overall, I'm glad that I saw this movie.
A lovely film that truly surprises
luckyfay16 June 2006
I saw "Red Road" at Cannes, and it was my pick as best film almost to the end, beaten out only by "Pan's Labyrinth". The film keeps you off balance throughout because you are not told what to think of events; they simply unfold without explanation until the events themselves necessitate dialogue between the two main characters. Not knowing becomes rather vexing because you are always trying to figure out why the protagonist does so much that you feel is wrong, but it's all just part of the fun. And the kind of storytelling I enjoy most. It reminded me of "Exotica", another film I loved. Too, the faces of the actors are relatively unfamiliar which adds to the mystery, since they carry no "baggage" from previous films to the characters.
There doesn't seem to be a distributor connected to this movie yet, and we'd really lose out if it doesn't get to the U. S. To the reviewer who gave away the plot, you are an ass.
There doesn't seem to be a distributor connected to this movie yet, and we'd really lose out if it doesn't get to the U. S. To the reviewer who gave away the plot, you are an ass.
Unique and mindful,simply as that...
hahanoulis830 September 2006
Red Road is one of those films that you really don't know what is going to happen next...That the script is so well written that you don't have any choice but to follow the plot in order to figure out the whole point of the movie.So automatically you allow the main character to lead you in her own mysterious way into a game where stalking and maybe deceiving are legal in a way...
Definitely not a thriller, this film takes us into the depths of a woman who is watching a suspicious man through CCTV and finally gets involved with him in real life for some unknown reason.
The sex scene everyone was talking about in Cannes is not as hot as I personally expected and I think that the director Andrea Arnold used this scene as the point where all the goals of the main character are achieved and from then on all the hidden reasons will come out.
Generally speaking, Red Road is a fine and enjoyable film with many unique moments and feelings.
Definitely not a thriller, this film takes us into the depths of a woman who is watching a suspicious man through CCTV and finally gets involved with him in real life for some unknown reason.
The sex scene everyone was talking about in Cannes is not as hot as I personally expected and I think that the director Andrea Arnold used this scene as the point where all the goals of the main character are achieved and from then on all the hidden reasons will come out.
Generally speaking, Red Road is a fine and enjoyable film with many unique moments and feelings.
Tries too hard
banzanbon1 June 2011
This film tries to create an aura of mystery and fails. It ends up being predictable and ultimately disappointing. It builds itself up for a major payoff that ends up not being anywhere near as shocking as you are lead to anticipate. Clyde turns out to be yet another typical Glaswegian anti-hero who committed a crime he didn't mean to and Jackie is just another person who hasn't gotten over the pain of loss and goes out of her way to manipulate her position, both at work and in her 'entrapment' of Clyde. The film captures the 'dreach' or bleakness of Glasgow well and it definitely captures the nature of technology and the certain voyeurism that results from it more often than not. But ultimately, it is a very goody-two-shoes ending. The best parts of the film are the acting, cinematography which has a Dogma 95 quality and the editing but again, the script is a let down. It could be a story that happens ANYWHERE and it fails to explain why necessarily Glasgow. All together, I found this film to be too hyped up to bother.
Realistic human drama in the form of a thriller
timewatching718 November 2006
I just saw this film in the European Cinema Festival of Sevilla. What took me to see it was the fact that it was shot in Glasgow. Also I had heard that Lars Von Triers had something to do with it. So that made up my mind.
The film involves you, and makes you feel closer and closer to the protagonist. Nevertheles, the spectator does not know the relationship between the protagonist and the man she has discovered through the CCTV. The mystery gets solved as the film goes on, and the tension is well kept throughout the film. This is not (only) a thriller, it is a drama full of realism, with all its crudeness and no false extremes with regards to good ones and evil ones. The interpretations by the actors are truly brilliant. I don't see that "that" sex scene is so crude, I think it is very naturalistic. There are scenes in the film that seem very crude to me, but won't tell in order not to spoil anything. I highly recommend this film!
The film involves you, and makes you feel closer and closer to the protagonist. Nevertheles, the spectator does not know the relationship between the protagonist and the man she has discovered through the CCTV. The mystery gets solved as the film goes on, and the tension is well kept throughout the film. This is not (only) a thriller, it is a drama full of realism, with all its crudeness and no false extremes with regards to good ones and evil ones. The interpretations by the actors are truly brilliant. I don't see that "that" sex scene is so crude, I think it is very naturalistic. There are scenes in the film that seem very crude to me, but won't tell in order not to spoil anything. I highly recommend this film!
strange but effective
blanche-216 August 2012
A film that takes one down a couple of unexpected paths, "Red Road" (2006) stars Kate Dickie as Jackie, a very thin, tired-looking and sad woman who works for the police as a CCTV operator in Glasgow. She watches footage from the various security cameras around her section and reports suspicious behavior, crimes in progress, etc. throughout a particularly gritty area of the city. When Jackie receives an invitation for her sister-in-law's wedding, she attends. It's evident her father-in-law is upset with her; we get the idea that Jackie's husband is dead and that in some way, she has kept the family from getting closure.
One day while on the job, to her surprise, Jackie sees a familiar face. She finds out that the man she saw had an early prison release. She begins to stalk him. He doesn't seem to know her, but when she shows up at a party in his apartment, she looks familiar to him. Eventually they have sex - one of the most graphic sex scenes I've ever seen -- and gradually the real story unfolds.
You won't know what this film is about for a long time, but you'll keep busy guessing. In that way, the pace is slow-moving but keeps your attention.
The acting is not only excellent but very natural from Kate Dickie, who has a real workhorse role, and Tim Curran as Clyde, the recently released prisoner.
The idea that we are watched all the time without knowing it is unnerving, and it's fascinating to see how Jackie uses her job and the surveillance to get some closure in her own life. Very satisfying if raw film.
One day while on the job, to her surprise, Jackie sees a familiar face. She finds out that the man she saw had an early prison release. She begins to stalk him. He doesn't seem to know her, but when she shows up at a party in his apartment, she looks familiar to him. Eventually they have sex - one of the most graphic sex scenes I've ever seen -- and gradually the real story unfolds.
You won't know what this film is about for a long time, but you'll keep busy guessing. In that way, the pace is slow-moving but keeps your attention.
The acting is not only excellent but very natural from Kate Dickie, who has a real workhorse role, and Tim Curran as Clyde, the recently released prisoner.
The idea that we are watched all the time without knowing it is unnerving, and it's fascinating to see how Jackie uses her job and the surveillance to get some closure in her own life. Very satisfying if raw film.
Interesting start, but good acting can't compensate for the missing complexity
dsh2619 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
** No specific spoilers, but I discuss the narrative shape, and hint at some plot elements.** This film comes on as a psychological suspenseful mood-piece, but delivers all too much dark mood and not enough psychological insight. I was rooting for Red Road for a while-I liked the dread and creepy voyeurism (in a rough part of Glasgow). But I felt the film, despite its earnest attempt to deal with a woman's grief, was fairly banal. And, more importantly, it does not integrate the two biggest plot elements thematically.
The film doles out small bits of information about why Jackie is disturbed and begins to track Clyde, a recently-released criminal, and to misuse some of her powers as a tracker. This works well for a while, but then gets a bit tedious.
Disappointingly, the use of surveillance is not united with any larger thematic concern. For a film which begins steeped in the technology of watching and recording--even quotidian doings come to seem ominous-the surveillance aspect is part of entirely personal plot, with very little wider cultural implications. This may be because the UK has more surveillance than the U.S., so the filmmaker was simply using it as a given, whereas in the US it would generate more societal questions (though the use of cameras is surely growing in the US).
The other big thematic problem is why Jackie chooses her particular form of revenge. It's an extremely provocative choice, but it's not tied to what happened in the past. Again, her personal reasons (her loneliness, her revulsion/attraction to a dangerous but compelling guy) are interesting, but her technique is a culturally relevant issue which the film has nothing to say about.
As Clyde, Tony Curran has haunting moments. His physicality, even the way he walks, is a memorable portrait of a man caught between studly swagger, haunted emptiness and attempted recovery. As Jackie, Kate Dickie has a tougher task, playing the repressed pain but hinting at someone capable of inflicting revenge. But she's good too.
In the end, though, it was not enough for me to like this film. The movie feels rather small, and a not-too-original spin on other films which have dealt with similar matters.
The film doles out small bits of information about why Jackie is disturbed and begins to track Clyde, a recently-released criminal, and to misuse some of her powers as a tracker. This works well for a while, but then gets a bit tedious.
Disappointingly, the use of surveillance is not united with any larger thematic concern. For a film which begins steeped in the technology of watching and recording--even quotidian doings come to seem ominous-the surveillance aspect is part of entirely personal plot, with very little wider cultural implications. This may be because the UK has more surveillance than the U.S., so the filmmaker was simply using it as a given, whereas in the US it would generate more societal questions (though the use of cameras is surely growing in the US).
The other big thematic problem is why Jackie chooses her particular form of revenge. It's an extremely provocative choice, but it's not tied to what happened in the past. Again, her personal reasons (her loneliness, her revulsion/attraction to a dangerous but compelling guy) are interesting, but her technique is a culturally relevant issue which the film has nothing to say about.
As Clyde, Tony Curran has haunting moments. His physicality, even the way he walks, is a memorable portrait of a man caught between studly swagger, haunted emptiness and attempted recovery. As Jackie, Kate Dickie has a tougher task, playing the repressed pain but hinting at someone capable of inflicting revenge. But she's good too.
In the end, though, it was not enough for me to like this film. The movie feels rather small, and a not-too-original spin on other films which have dealt with similar matters.
Unknown Loss
tedg17 January 2010
The setup is simple. We are voyeurs watching a woman whose job it is to watch surveillance cameras. She gets engaged with a specific subject, leaving the camera and entering the reality. We do as well, but the reason she does so is held in tension as a mystery. She clearly is repulsed while simultaneously attracted, but things take a very long time. By the end, you learn why.
But for nearly two hours, because you are folded into this, you suffer the incredible loss this woman has. She knows what that loss is, but you do not, which makes it ever the more effective. Because you can fill it in with the loss you know, and you can fall as deeply as you ever have.
It is a profound construction. Disturbing. Cinematic. Visual, Folded.
I study redheads in film, and what they stand for. In Hollywood, the dynamic is different than in the UK. There, an overt racism overlays the thing: redheads are from Ireland, and the Irish are at the bottom of the social scale. "Gingers" are considered rare and alluring in the US, while in England there is a vile connotation.
The guy here, the fellow we fear because he is so low class in this tattered landscape, he is a ginger. The road factors into the plot in a few different ways. Red does as well.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
But for nearly two hours, because you are folded into this, you suffer the incredible loss this woman has. She knows what that loss is, but you do not, which makes it ever the more effective. Because you can fill it in with the loss you know, and you can fall as deeply as you ever have.
It is a profound construction. Disturbing. Cinematic. Visual, Folded.
I study redheads in film, and what they stand for. In Hollywood, the dynamic is different than in the UK. There, an overt racism overlays the thing: redheads are from Ireland, and the Irish are at the bottom of the social scale. "Gingers" are considered rare and alluring in the US, while in England there is a vile connotation.
The guy here, the fellow we fear because he is so low class in this tattered landscape, he is a ginger. The road factors into the plot in a few different ways. Red does as well.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Well-acted well-photographed guilt-trip
oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx12 June 2007
You have to love the photography in this film: the lava lamp reflection in a window looking out onto inky night synchronised with an orgasm. The very deliberate monochromatic lighting in the rooms, we go from yellow to blue almost as if we're watching a silent movie that has been tinted (clearly Arnold has been influenced by all phases of von Trier).
These however are triumphs in despite of the script. For what we have here is another example of the cultural malaise that is the British 'Grim Up North' picture or what used to be known as a Kitchen-Sinker. This is the role of young British directors these days, to make austere, nasty films. Supposedly the only 'authentic' culture we have in Great Britain is that of the working class. Although to call the jobless reprobates that we often see in these movies 'working' class is a misnomer to put it only mildly. What UK cineastes mean by this term 'authentic' is very nebulous (after all who can objectively term an alcopop-fuelled culture of fornication, drug abuse, wage slavery, gambling and swearing authentic?), generally only being a reflection of their own middle-class self-hatred, their narcissistic despising of the bourgeois milieu that they belong to and prop up (perhaps a more appropriate response to this background would be along the lines of the Vienna Actionists?). Andrea Arnold herself is guilty of this. An interview on the UK DVD release is very telling in this respect, it's clear that she's really quite jealous of the people and culture that she has run into. She's also quite clear that she deliberately avoided shooting any of the affluent parts of Glasgow, or the 'nice fancy retail streets' as she calls them as if somehow consumerism were only part of the middle class experience. She also mentions that she is only interested in 'people who are up against it'. Which I suppose is what an American would correctly call a classic example of liberal guilt.
There are excuses for this type of filming (the excesses of which border on paternalism), for example as a political polemic (The Last of England), or a horror movie (Dead Men's Shoes). But mainly the brand is about navel gazing, wallowing in class-bound angst and guilt, projecting our own sickness onto what Dickens described as 'the gaiety of the slums'.
One excuse for this film might be that it has a political message about CCTV surveillance. In fact CCTV in this film is more about a metaphor of voyeurism, more of a middle class disease and seemingly not something that Jackie would be doing. The level of CCTV surveillance in the UK country is not really frightening anyway (another classic example of liberal middle-class paranoia) ,it is comforting . I speak as someone who has actually worked in a shop and has used CCTV to help get convictions against people behaving antisocially both inside and out. CCTV also helped to catch a criminal who robbed the shop and umpteen thrill-shoplifters.
We are a long way away from the days of Edison when the paradigm of a film was that it was above all to be entertaining. One mustn't be too hard on Red Road though, the acting and photography are flawless after all. 6/10
These however are triumphs in despite of the script. For what we have here is another example of the cultural malaise that is the British 'Grim Up North' picture or what used to be known as a Kitchen-Sinker. This is the role of young British directors these days, to make austere, nasty films. Supposedly the only 'authentic' culture we have in Great Britain is that of the working class. Although to call the jobless reprobates that we often see in these movies 'working' class is a misnomer to put it only mildly. What UK cineastes mean by this term 'authentic' is very nebulous (after all who can objectively term an alcopop-fuelled culture of fornication, drug abuse, wage slavery, gambling and swearing authentic?), generally only being a reflection of their own middle-class self-hatred, their narcissistic despising of the bourgeois milieu that they belong to and prop up (perhaps a more appropriate response to this background would be along the lines of the Vienna Actionists?). Andrea Arnold herself is guilty of this. An interview on the UK DVD release is very telling in this respect, it's clear that she's really quite jealous of the people and culture that she has run into. She's also quite clear that she deliberately avoided shooting any of the affluent parts of Glasgow, or the 'nice fancy retail streets' as she calls them as if somehow consumerism were only part of the middle class experience. She also mentions that she is only interested in 'people who are up against it'. Which I suppose is what an American would correctly call a classic example of liberal guilt.
There are excuses for this type of filming (the excesses of which border on paternalism), for example as a political polemic (The Last of England), or a horror movie (Dead Men's Shoes). But mainly the brand is about navel gazing, wallowing in class-bound angst and guilt, projecting our own sickness onto what Dickens described as 'the gaiety of the slums'.
One excuse for this film might be that it has a political message about CCTV surveillance. In fact CCTV in this film is more about a metaphor of voyeurism, more of a middle class disease and seemingly not something that Jackie would be doing. The level of CCTV surveillance in the UK country is not really frightening anyway (another classic example of liberal middle-class paranoia) ,it is comforting . I speak as someone who has actually worked in a shop and has used CCTV to help get convictions against people behaving antisocially both inside and out. CCTV also helped to catch a criminal who robbed the shop and umpteen thrill-shoplifters.
We are a long way away from the days of Edison when the paradigm of a film was that it was above all to be entertaining. One mustn't be too hard on Red Road though, the acting and photography are flawless after all. 6/10
Moving.
theiinteam2 November 2006
An intimate and moving portrayal of characters both devastated and desperate. Performances are very subtle, yet brimming with emotion, so much so that some scenes are really quite uncomfortable to watch. Direction is also brilliant and the low budget restrictions really do not show. Also a very successful portrayal of the way many people in Glasgow live. I am very excited about the next two in the trilogy, as there were strong hints of very interesting stories accompanying the supporting characters. This film is so full of emotion that i just hope that people around the world don't come to think that Glasgow could be the most dreich place in the world.
Magnificent.
Magnificent.
Andrea Arnold rules!
logicproreviews3 January 2021
If you liked Fish Tank and American Honey, you will love Red Road.
The premise is simple enough, a CCTV operator who enjoys people watching, becomes obsessed with a man who appears on her monitors. She starts to follow a man and twist reveals why
This is a raw, gritty drama that will linger in your ind long after you've seen it.
6/10
The premise is simple enough, a CCTV operator who enjoys people watching, becomes obsessed with a man who appears on her monitors. She starts to follow a man and twist reveals why
This is a raw, gritty drama that will linger in your ind long after you've seen it.
6/10
Mystery with a slow fuse
saareman15 September 2006
I saw the North American premiere of Red Road on Sept 14, 2006 at the Isabel Bader Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival.
This was extremely well made for a first time feature and the story line packed quite a few wallops on the way. It is a slow build up so just be patient, there'll be plenty of shocks to come and it is quite a while before all the pieces fall into place.
It was a very original idea and story by Andrea Arnold using the characters imposed on her by the limitations of a new Dogme-like film rule called Advance Party. 2 more films are set to come using the same lead characters and actors but in entirely different contexts. All of them must take place in Scotland according to the rules.
Director Andrea Arnold was there for the North American premiere and led a lively and humorous Q&A at the end that included the somewhat chilling statistics that the UK has over 4 million CCTVs or 1 for every 14 people and that overall they have 20% of the CCTVs in operation on the entire planet.
This was extremely well made for a first time feature and the story line packed quite a few wallops on the way. It is a slow build up so just be patient, there'll be plenty of shocks to come and it is quite a while before all the pieces fall into place.
It was a very original idea and story by Andrea Arnold using the characters imposed on her by the limitations of a new Dogme-like film rule called Advance Party. 2 more films are set to come using the same lead characters and actors but in entirely different contexts. All of them must take place in Scotland according to the rules.
Director Andrea Arnold was there for the North American premiere and led a lively and humorous Q&A at the end that included the somewhat chilling statistics that the UK has over 4 million CCTVs or 1 for every 14 people and that overall they have 20% of the CCTVs in operation on the entire planet.
Glasgow surveillance shocker...
Drifteral994 March 2009
This taut, excellent Scottish movie is set in Glasgow - on mean streets and council schemes where graffiti abounds and life can be a struggle. Where men are hard and the Tennants Ale flows...and too many look gaunt, wasted and shallow faced.
The plot revolves around the central character who works in a CCTV surveillance studio. She appears quite lonely , and very ordinary but she has a tragic past as is revealed later. She recognises someone on camera - someone from her tragic past and seeks to engineer a meeting with him for reasons unknown but which become all too clear.
This is a low budget homespun movie but as someone who collects Scottish output I'm glad to have it. It's a novel idea. The film would have been an 18 cert. I would hope. I have never seen such graphic sex scenes in a mainstream movie. They are not always pleasant and there is a pervasive air of tawdry, cheap but urgent copulation threaded through the plot. Not for shrinking violets or the prim amongst us but I did catch myself wincing once or twice....that's wincing.
However, if you rise above the sleaze and sympathise with our heroine who is really a fine upstanding lass with a lust for healthy revenge this film is worth taking a walk on the cheap side.
Incidentally, although the scale of surveillance is perhaps a trifle overstated it's a grim indication of just how scrutinised we in Great Britain are becoming as a society.
The plot revolves around the central character who works in a CCTV surveillance studio. She appears quite lonely , and very ordinary but she has a tragic past as is revealed later. She recognises someone on camera - someone from her tragic past and seeks to engineer a meeting with him for reasons unknown but which become all too clear.
This is a low budget homespun movie but as someone who collects Scottish output I'm glad to have it. It's a novel idea. The film would have been an 18 cert. I would hope. I have never seen such graphic sex scenes in a mainstream movie. They are not always pleasant and there is a pervasive air of tawdry, cheap but urgent copulation threaded through the plot. Not for shrinking violets or the prim amongst us but I did catch myself wincing once or twice....that's wincing.
However, if you rise above the sleaze and sympathise with our heroine who is really a fine upstanding lass with a lust for healthy revenge this film is worth taking a walk on the cheap side.
Incidentally, although the scale of surveillance is perhaps a trifle overstated it's a grim indication of just how scrutinised we in Great Britain are becoming as a society.
good pacing but ultimately unconvincing
LunarPoise31 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
All of us, at sometime or another, have had to cope with grief. Most people do not 'get over' the death of a loved one, they learn to accommodate it, while knowing that on the inside they are changed forever.
Some of us, unfortunately, also have to cope with causing hurt and destruction in the lives of others as a result of our own self-inflicted substance abuse. The subsequent guilt and self-loathing is never punishment enough.
What Red Road asks of the audience, is to believe that two people whose lives become intertwined as a result of such actions would resolve their relationship in the fashion this story relates.
Red Road is well-directed in terms of framing and drip-feeding the backstory to the audience, superbly acted, has admirable cinematography and creditable art direction. However, I did not believe this story. The script just did not have the power to achieve such towering heights of catharsis. Witness Clyde's final attempt at explanation for his horrible act: "This kind of thing happens every day. Sh#t happens." This is a line that conjures up no emotion at all, a cliché, from a character who did not deserve clichéd treatment. There are more glaring gaps in credibility - would the police not recognise the past connection between these two characters when she makes the rape charge? How can the CCTV footage of her escaping Red Road still be in the cupboard when it is evidence in an ongoing rape investigation? Can you really drop rape charges with just one phone call? And in a tale so grounded in realism, isn't it a heck of a coincidence that Clyde's daughter shows up when she does?
This is a promising but not wholly convincing debut from Arnold. I would not call her a wise filmmaker, but she is certainly brave. Arnold is not Scottish, but by setting a film like this in Glasgow she invites comparisons with Lynne Ramsay - not because they are two of that rarest of creatures, the female director, but because stylistically and thematically they are so close. Let Ramsay do her thing (which she does very well), and hope that Arnold finds her own voice and style. I will certainly look out for her next film.
Some of us, unfortunately, also have to cope with causing hurt and destruction in the lives of others as a result of our own self-inflicted substance abuse. The subsequent guilt and self-loathing is never punishment enough.
What Red Road asks of the audience, is to believe that two people whose lives become intertwined as a result of such actions would resolve their relationship in the fashion this story relates.
Red Road is well-directed in terms of framing and drip-feeding the backstory to the audience, superbly acted, has admirable cinematography and creditable art direction. However, I did not believe this story. The script just did not have the power to achieve such towering heights of catharsis. Witness Clyde's final attempt at explanation for his horrible act: "This kind of thing happens every day. Sh#t happens." This is a line that conjures up no emotion at all, a cliché, from a character who did not deserve clichéd treatment. There are more glaring gaps in credibility - would the police not recognise the past connection between these two characters when she makes the rape charge? How can the CCTV footage of her escaping Red Road still be in the cupboard when it is evidence in an ongoing rape investigation? Can you really drop rape charges with just one phone call? And in a tale so grounded in realism, isn't it a heck of a coincidence that Clyde's daughter shows up when she does?
This is a promising but not wholly convincing debut from Arnold. I would not call her a wise filmmaker, but she is certainly brave. Arnold is not Scottish, but by setting a film like this in Glasgow she invites comparisons with Lynne Ramsay - not because they are two of that rarest of creatures, the female director, but because stylistically and thematically they are so close. Let Ramsay do her thing (which she does very well), and hope that Arnold finds her own voice and style. I will certainly look out for her next film.
Excellent, challenging film
delphine09020 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I at first reserved comment on this film, sat with it as it settled in and began to resonate.
Red Road is a challenging film on several levels. It requires us to pay attention; it doesn't hit us on the head with flashbacks or expository "on the nose" dialog. Instead the script is frugal, casually exacting, and the discovery is in the subtext rather than "what's on screen".
When we first meet Jackie, all we see is a head and shoulders, hands manipulating the CCTV cameras so she can get a better look at the nefarious goings on she is trained to know what's worth looking at and what she can let go.
Jackie remains rather disembodied throughout much of the film - even during sex it seems she's not really connected to anything below her neck, including her heart. She's passive, running away from even the slightest emotional exchange.
Except for Clyde. Clyde changes everything. She loses perspective and we follow along with her, despising Clyde because she does. Everything he does looks vaguely criminal because we see him through Jackie's tainted eyes.
But again we are challenged to see Clyde (and other characters) as layered individuals. The waste-nothing script gives us insight into their motivations sure, it could have had some sort of perversion or "twisty" ending, but the point really is that sometimes what looks strange and frightening on the surface is actually benign and familiar on a deeper, more personal level.
A lot has been said here about the sex scene, which is pretty explicit, although only one scene. But it is the pivotal scene in the film. In order to insinuate herself into Clyde's world, she has to engage with him in a way she's been avoiding with anyone. But she ends up letting go completely, more than she "has" to. And in doing so she not only accesses her pain and anger, but remembers her body and its need for nurturing, remembers her heart and her compassion, and begins to see Clyde in three dimensions for the first time. As do we.
I did have a problem with the police aspect of it, because here in the states what Jackie put into motion would not have been stopped just because she decided not to press the issue.
The success of a quiet story like Red Road, sans neon "American-style" exposition, exists largely in the way the characters are brought to us by the actors. Kate Dickie and Tony Curran are excellent, and it's nice to see the underrated Mr. Curran in a lead role, and not invisible, quickly dead or, uh, undead.
Red Road is a challenging film on several levels. It requires us to pay attention; it doesn't hit us on the head with flashbacks or expository "on the nose" dialog. Instead the script is frugal, casually exacting, and the discovery is in the subtext rather than "what's on screen".
When we first meet Jackie, all we see is a head and shoulders, hands manipulating the CCTV cameras so she can get a better look at the nefarious goings on she is trained to know what's worth looking at and what she can let go.
Jackie remains rather disembodied throughout much of the film - even during sex it seems she's not really connected to anything below her neck, including her heart. She's passive, running away from even the slightest emotional exchange.
Except for Clyde. Clyde changes everything. She loses perspective and we follow along with her, despising Clyde because she does. Everything he does looks vaguely criminal because we see him through Jackie's tainted eyes.
But again we are challenged to see Clyde (and other characters) as layered individuals. The waste-nothing script gives us insight into their motivations sure, it could have had some sort of perversion or "twisty" ending, but the point really is that sometimes what looks strange and frightening on the surface is actually benign and familiar on a deeper, more personal level.
A lot has been said here about the sex scene, which is pretty explicit, although only one scene. But it is the pivotal scene in the film. In order to insinuate herself into Clyde's world, she has to engage with him in a way she's been avoiding with anyone. But she ends up letting go completely, more than she "has" to. And in doing so she not only accesses her pain and anger, but remembers her body and its need for nurturing, remembers her heart and her compassion, and begins to see Clyde in three dimensions for the first time. As do we.
I did have a problem with the police aspect of it, because here in the states what Jackie put into motion would not have been stopped just because she decided not to press the issue.
The success of a quiet story like Red Road, sans neon "American-style" exposition, exists largely in the way the characters are brought to us by the actors. Kate Dickie and Tony Curran are excellent, and it's nice to see the underrated Mr. Curran in a lead role, and not invisible, quickly dead or, uh, undead.
Well acted but depressing
MattyGibbs19 May 2013
This is a fairly simple film of a CCTV operator who notices a face from her past that she didn't want to see again. It follows Jackie as she infiltrates the life of the man from her past and tries to gain her revenge.
It's a slow moving film and maybe it could have been cut down by 20 minutes but it does at least steadily improve towards to end. It boasts good performances from a strong cast which helps keep interest at the beginning.
Red Road is not a particularly nice film to watch, the setting is grim and it's a darkly lit film which only adds to the general depressing nature of the film. There is nothing to lighten the mood and it also contains one of if not the most explicit sex scenes I've ever seen on film. However if you can get through the first hour then it does turn into a very effective drama.
For a low budget film this is a very good effort and is worth at least one viewing.
It's a slow moving film and maybe it could have been cut down by 20 minutes but it does at least steadily improve towards to end. It boasts good performances from a strong cast which helps keep interest at the beginning.
Red Road is not a particularly nice film to watch, the setting is grim and it's a darkly lit film which only adds to the general depressing nature of the film. There is nothing to lighten the mood and it also contains one of if not the most explicit sex scenes I've ever seen on film. However if you can get through the first hour then it does turn into a very effective drama.
For a low budget film this is a very good effort and is worth at least one viewing.
z z z z z z z z z z z z
josephemeryprank4 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
If you enjoy being bored senseless, watch this film.
There is so much wrong with it that it is difficult to know where to start, but the obvious place is the over-long completely unnecessary sex scene.
I think it is very wrong to ask serious actors to perform such an explicit scene as this. Even it was plausible that she would try to set him up in this way, the scene does not need to be so long or explicit. (Unless of course the film was exploring her sexual frustration and needs, which it is not. She has already had a fumble in a car with a married man. So much for losing your husband - let's deprive another woman of hers).
The whole premise for this type of revenge in the film is ridiculous anyway - would a woman who had lost her husband and daughter to this man's drug driving really be able to face having sex with him, never mind the intimacy of cunnilingus. I think not. And then suddenly she decides to drop charges - just like that. I think the police would have something to say about that.
Another thing - an urn with the ashes of an adult male is surprisingly HEAVY - she carried the urns of her husband and daughter as if they were a loaf of bread. Also, i think this film needs subtitles - not for the thick Glaswegian accents but for the constant mumbling going on.
There is so much wrong with it that it is difficult to know where to start, but the obvious place is the over-long completely unnecessary sex scene.
I think it is very wrong to ask serious actors to perform such an explicit scene as this. Even it was plausible that she would try to set him up in this way, the scene does not need to be so long or explicit. (Unless of course the film was exploring her sexual frustration and needs, which it is not. She has already had a fumble in a car with a married man. So much for losing your husband - let's deprive another woman of hers).
The whole premise for this type of revenge in the film is ridiculous anyway - would a woman who had lost her husband and daughter to this man's drug driving really be able to face having sex with him, never mind the intimacy of cunnilingus. I think not. And then suddenly she decides to drop charges - just like that. I think the police would have something to say about that.
Another thing - an urn with the ashes of an adult male is surprisingly HEAVY - she carried the urns of her husband and daughter as if they were a loaf of bread. Also, i think this film needs subtitles - not for the thick Glaswegian accents but for the constant mumbling going on.
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