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 Dir: Ross Shepherd Starring: Tom Rudd, Amber Coombs, Thomas J Grube, John Hoye, Steve Lorrigan, Grant Tulley Release date: 16th Nov 2009 Review: Dave Burbidge William (Rudd) lives a mundane life in Brighton. He gets up early and works in the train depot and then sleeps in his small bedsit. Still trying to deal with the disappearance of his brother David (Lorrigan) a year previous, he has no self esteem at all, and even rebuffs a friends invite. Things change when a French girl, Chloe (Coombs) moves into one of the flats and paints an abstract portrait of him. The two swiftly become lovers, but when a strange man (Grube) seems to stalk them, and a disturbing radio dedication shocks William into asking questions, the answers may be too much for him to handle. A slow dramatic thriller that has been shot in B&W. Poor Rudd has to portray the most boring man in Brighton, though apart from a brief trip to the museum, it could really be anywhere. Apart from David's disappearance there are other unanswered questions such as the frostiness of a fellow worker, and why Chloe has a shovel in her car boot. What she actually does for a living is never shown. Chloe seems to fall for William a little too easily. Grube injects some suitable menace, but is actually a bit of a pushover in the physical stakes. There are some annoying flashbacks, annoying because they are presaged by scratchy special effects, but we do get to see David as the opposite of William, dynamic, but ironically over his head in drugs and kinky sex. Nevertheless it is a solid British offering, and bearing in mind that ths was shot on a shoestring, a great achievment by Shepherd, with only William's friend and also his co-worker unconvincing. Rudd is particularly strong epitomising the rut that he has withdrawn into, whilst Coombs is by contrast an instigator, pushing William into a job interview (never attended) and taking the lead in the relationship. Shepherd will take some beating once he gets some proper funding.
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