filmbore pick of the week - Down Terrace

Down Terrace

Director: Ben Wheatley
Screenplay: Robin Hill, Ben Wheatley
Starring: Robin Hill, Robert Hill, Julia Deakin, Michael Smiley
Year: 2009
Language: English
UK rental release: August 2010


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Back in June this year I critiqued Ben Wheatley's excellently disturbing mixed genre piece Kill List (read the review here) and a friend recommended that I check out his debut, the self funded black comedy, Down Terrace. And I'm so glad I did!

Karl (Robin Hill, who co-wrote the film with Wheatley) has just got out of prison and ready to re-assimilate himself back into society. Joining him in freedom is his dad, Bill (Robert Hill, Robin's real life father) who, more so than his son, feels that something is afoot. The father-son duo head up an organised crime family in Brighton and on their return to Down Terrace start to unravel a conspiracy within their realm - there's a police informer amongst them and Bill is determined to find out who.

Karl is somewhat distant however, as he starts to feel a little separated from current events. He's also continually perplexed and perturbed by the philosophical ramblings of his father. Bill's unique mindset is that he is on a spritual path, with his role in the world justified from cultures previous to Karl's existence - the 60s defined his soul, and he still feels a part of it. So, his continual drug dealing and other activities are his response to a time taken from him by the "system", unjustly in his eyes.

The swelling paranoia is fuelled by the matriarch of the tale, Karl's mum Maggie (the always fantastic Julia Deakin, Shaun Of The Dead, Spaced TV series) as she sporadically drops hints and whispers to Bill on who the traitor could be. Not only does this situation trouble her, but also the re-emergence of Karl's now pregnant ex-girlfriend.

The looming responsibility of parenthood adds fuel to Karl's segregation of events, and channels his emotions in unexpected ways. Questions are thrown a plenty to all of those close to them, and they even bring in another connection to handle a potential hit in the form of ex-marine Pringle (Michael Smiley, Kill List, and also of Spaced TV Series fame). The ripe smell of deceit slowly invades their home and as they investigate further, leading to some surprising outcomes as they let their honour and reliance on trust overcome them.

If you've watched Kill List already, I have to point out that this is a very different approach from Ben Wheatley. You'll read my description above (which is a fair portrayal without giving too much away) and feel some veins of similarity between the two films, but that certainly isn't the case. Down Terrace is a lighter, more humorous picture and the characters aren't put there to insight fire like in his more famous piece but to breath familiarity instead. Each role is naturally played out by each actor, with every scene sitting comfortably on the screen with a fly-on-a-wall style. You feel like your watching a British soap opera only to be reminded of the ongoing tale by specific lines of dialogue and the odd bout of action. This technique works beautifully, allowing you to relax into the film straight away as you connect to the material and the characters effortlessly.

It's extremely well written too, with a mix of ad-lib, suggestion and scripted lines, pouring lashings of next-door drama throughout. It's clearly thanks to a wonderfully real and grounded cast that this angle works, especially from our main protagonists (especially Deakin who's chillingly devious and overly mothering from start to finish). But I don't want to detract from some great performances from the smaller roles, which include some brilliant UK TV comedic actors such as David Schaal (The Inbeteweeners, The Office), Tony Way (Monkey Trousers, Blunder) and the always effervescent Michael Smiley. They all play off each other with such natural finesse and vigour, completing the puzzle to this compact piece.

There is one final character that needs a mention...the terrace set itself. Using the real-life Hill family home for nearly the entire film not only created the perfect down-to-earth environment for the actors involved but generated an air of claustrophobia and tension required for the events to come. It also presents the necessary "kitchen-sink" drama feel that gives Down Terrace it's approachable edge and showing the characters as human beings who just happen to be gangsters, as opposed to the exaggerated personas we're so use to seeing in larger, fuller funded movies. They suffer from the same family strife as anyone else, with troubled minds and fragmented personalities, allowing you to peer through a window into standard British life, or a mirror to your own demons.

We're also reminded that even though they make the decisions of criminals who should appear invulnerable, they are in fact normal people capable of the same mistakes we are (just with more to lose in their current occupation!). They even feel real sympathy for those lost at their hands instead of brushing off their targets once dispatched. It's a humbling perspective not usually tackled in this type of story, and it's all the better for it.

Every director has a debut film, but not all of them great. But when you find a tale so bravely pieced together with wit, charm and grim confidence, all in the method of DIY cinema it's clear to see that great things are to come from it's helmer. This was proven with Kill List, and will no doubt be proved further with Wheatley's up-and-coming piece Sightseers (due for release November 30th) and I cannot wait to see what he'll serve us in years to come.

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