Ian Street treats us to two blogs from Leeds Young People’s Film Festival. We’ve split them into two reviews
A Children’s festival so what better than 2 films about death! Of course there is a lot more to the films than that but it underpins both of them together with family relationships and coming of age themes.
Set on the outskirts of Dublin, Donald (brilliantly played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is a teenager struggling to come to terms with the fact that he has leukaemia. How does a boy faced with his own impending death deal with the life that is around him? The rigid constraints of school seem utterly pointless when faced with your own mortality and Don’s anger and search for control of his own destiny bring him into conflict with most of those around him who, in his eyes, cannot possibly understand what he is going through. Don bury’s himself in music and and his own comic/graphic novel designed characters and it is through his brilliance at art that he attempts to come to terms with his world. He develops his own superhero alter ego who is pitched into a life and death struggle with his nemesis The Glove and the film beautifully and brilliantly in places weaves together animation, comic storyboard stills and film acting into the plot as the story develops until the Superhero and The Glove come face to face for the final fatal showdown.
Don’s parents look on with despair as their son rages against the dying of the light, unable to understand or help him. Of course all of us as parents view our own children as superheroes in their own right but struggle to see the world through their eyes and I found the relationship between them all both familiar and touching. Children have a clarity of view that many of us have either lost or could learn from and this becomes apparent as Don shows his parents who and what they really are. Don’s artistic exploits (otherwise known as graffiti) bring him into conflict with the authorities that necessitates him attending counselling which eventually leads, through a number of failed appointments, to Dr Adrian King (again beautifully portrayed by Andy Serkis). The relationship between the 2 is, for me, both a strength and weakness of the film in that you have two fine actors exploring the emotions of the situation but I couldn’t help feel we’ve seen it all before – maverick genius meet grief tinged shrink and bond forms – through the likes of Good Will Hunting for example.
The three main themes that they work through and which excise Don and his comic book alter ego the most are Fear, Control and Love and these are genuinely handled well throughout the film. It made me think back to being a teenager, on the cusp of adulthood and all the perceived freedom this may bring but trapped in a children’s world with all decisions controlled by other people: parents, schools, legal authorities, social mores etc. The film juxtaposes this really well as Don goes from rebellious graffiti tagging teen about town to being in a children’s cancer ward for his treatment. The one thing that Don could of course control might be his own death, should he commit suicide or wait for the cancer to do it’s worst? This in itself ensures that he confronts fear, the fear of his own mortality but also what he has never done. How can he come of age when he may never live to come of age? Again the film does and doesn’t work here as his friends look to ensure that he experiences all he needs to before death may take him. There are some genuinely funny moments here but the roping in of his counsellor strikes a hollow note. Let alone anything of a more carnal nature Don has yet to feel the kiss of another girls lips but is drawn to Shelly (again top notch casting played by Aisling Loftus). Their relationship is really well portrayed and never falls into the over sentimentality that it could have done.
Despite the serious nature of the film and a few flaws within it I thoroughly enjoyed it, the main parts are really well played and it explores a whole host of themes with touching intelligence. I loved the merging of animation within the film and in a way it made me wish I was 15 again, not so I could go through the trials and tribulations of my teenage years again but to know that there were films as good as this targeted at me and my friends.
Ian Street also blogs at Into the Orchard.