359. Gwen; movie review

GWEN
Cert 15
82 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, disturbing images

This has been a very disappointing year for overall quality of cinema releases but the exception has been low-budget movies from the UK.
William McGregor's Gwen continues that theme, drawing in its audience through the nuanced performance of a young woman.
Eleanor Worthington-Cox plays the title character with a combination of feistiness, bewilderment and plain fear.
Meanwhile, I could almost feel the numbing cold of a bleak mid-winter in Snowdonia where the film is set.
Set in the early 1800s, its shows Gwen trying desperately to hold her isolated home together as her mother (Maxine Peake) is struck down by a mysterious illness and father is absent, presumed to have gone to war.
Meanwhile, a ruthless quarry company is encroaching on to their land and its henchmen are given the job of getting them out by fair means or foul.
They see no support from the community who are suspicious of the darkness which seems to have enveloped the farm of Gwen's family.
McGregor expertly uses the backdrop of the desolation of landscape and the darkness of winter to add to the ghastliness which unfolds.
Gwen hints at witchcraft but it is not the central element of a picture which focuses most on how a young woman copes with the real horrors which are created by her family's plight.
Worthington-Cox is a beautifully haunted lead - desperately trying to extricate them from the metaphorical mire.
She is both loving and creative but also does anger and hysteria when required.
Peake occasionally snatches the limelight as an under-pressure mum who problems mount up as the film progresses.
It all as up to e movie which had me enthralled despite its small budget.


Reasons to watch: Bleak but enthralling
Reasons to avoid: Upsetting scenes

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? The first landowner in Wales to take over the working of slates on his land was the owner of the Penrhyn estate, Richard Pennant, later Baron Penrhyn. In 1782, the men working quarries on the estate were bought out or ejected, and Pennant appointed James Greenfield as agent. 

Final word. William McGregor: "I want to be able to portray in a story, and how people are affected by their traditions and beliefs, and how they can be affected by the world they grew up in. A part of that has to be getting a sense for what it's like to be in that space and to be in that isolation." Pop Matters

Share this post