Broken (Rufus Norris, 2012): UK

Reviewed by Jacob Dekker.  Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2013.

Rufus Norris’s Broken came out of nowhere it seemed.

There was not much buzz around it, at least from what I heard, at the film festival making this film feel like a gamble as I walked in.  After reading the blurb about this film in the guide I figured I’d either be pleasantly surprised or it would be one of those films that falls between the cracks.

The film takes place in England and is about three families that live together on a cul-de-sac.  The film starts very abruptly with mysterious, fast-paced cutaways leading to man punching a boy washing a car, which sets the film in motion.  At first, the film doesn’t explain the man’s motives for this basically leaving the audience in the dark.  Minutes later the gaps are bridged, and what the viewers start to find out is that this group of families is very dysfunctional and an innocent young girl nicknamed ‘Skunk’ play by Eloise Laurence is trapped in the midst of this broken world.

One of the first things people will notice in this film is that it has quite an impressive cast for being a low budget film.  Skunk’s father, Archie, is played by Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy also plays a supporting role in this film.  Just about all of the actors in this film did a great job of bringing their characters to life, except for a few of the child actors.  At times, some of the eight year old girls were so cruel, I found some of the acting between the children to be so exaggerated it was hard to believe.  Listening to a small little girl curse like no other, and bully other children just seemed a bit over the top at times, but it worked for the film.  The beautiful mise-en-scene and succinct edits also do a quite a bit for this film.  The ending is a bit dramatized, but it delivers an emotional punch nonetheless, and the mise-en-scene and editing help bring all the parts of the film together.

My biggest complaint with this film is the cinematography.  The framing and camera movement was fine in the film, but the film itself was very foggy and faded.  At first I though this was interesting and mysterious, but after about twenty minutes it got old.  I am assuming this was part of the auteur’s vision, but it kind of made the film feel bland, and somehow trapped within itself.

This is a small complaint considering how deep and well written this film is.  There are a lot of themes running through this movie about family, fatherhood, and motherhood all of which do not seem forced, but ar every powerful at the same time.

This can be a tough film to watch due to it’s dark and depressing subject matter, but thepayoff is worth much more than the cost of admission.