Review of Wreckers (2011) by Ben D — 14 Apr 2012

D. R. Hood's debut feature film is a difficult film to truly love. It shifts between being an incredible piece of fiction film making to being incredibly banal, sometimes within a scene. The dialogue, equally, goes from being on the nose to hammered home with blunt force, and is in one or two rare instances, actually quite clunky.

Claire Foy and Benedict Cumberbatch play husband and wife whose rural idyll is disturbed by the appearence of his brother - an occassionally awkward Shaun Evans - who is back from war and suffering from traumas undefined. Foy's character also enters into an ill-judged moment of lust with a handsome neighbour, further adding to the strain this couple suffer under. The stress of the summer takes its toll on them, and Cumberbatch goes from kindly man to being a man her husband barely recognises. Foy I found a little too weak to hold the picture - she is much too withdrawn, preferring to observe and be used than actually take control. Cumberbatch I find fine in his role as Sherlock Holmes on the TV, but I've yet to be truly impressed by his feature film work. This continues the disappointment: his performance should ripple with the tensions in him, but instead he most often just stares, attempting to look moody. His outbreak of violence at a badly handled (filmed, edited, acted) barbeque doesn't feel like the release it should be.

D.R. Hood's direction is equally baffling. There are moments of naturalistic charm - a focus on the natural world to counterbalance the trauma, for instance - and some sequences are captivatingly filmed. Then there are times it seems Hood doesn't quite know where to put the camera - during the first argument between the brothers the camera seem to linger on a design on the wallpaer more than the brothers fighting at the bottom of the frame. Such directorial ticks keep the brothers at a distance, and as a consequence the film.

Nevertheless, this is a debut film and it hints at a very strong future career for Hood. If I didn't know Cumberbatch already, I'd have said he has the potential to be very good (and he still does on film, he's just not done it yet). Foy is good, but l suspect there is better ahead for her. As a British - nay, English - for this is a very English film - it is fascinating but troubling and inconsistent production.