126. God's Creatures; movie review

 

GOD'S CREATURES

Cert 15

101 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language, sexual violence references, domestic abuse

When I trained journalists to write features, I used to tell them to "throw the bombs in first" 

Basically, this meant that they had to excite in the first paragraph so that the reader would stick with their article all of the way through.

Some writers prefer what we called drop intros - ie building the story slowly.

The latter seems to have become de rigueur with many movie-makers who use the first half of their films to create atmosphere. The risk is that the audience will have fallen asleep.

Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer's God's Creatures follows this pattern - a broody first half with nothing much happening before a dramatic second.

We could have given up but, thankfully, our perseverance was rewarded.

It stars the always impressive Emily Watson as Aileen, a matriarch in a fishing community and supervisor at a seafood processing plant.

During the funeral of a young fisherman, her son (Paul Mescal) appears after years away in Australia.

It is clear that Paul has been a bad lad but Aileen sees only the best in him and is convinced he is trying to turn over an honest leaf..

However, the overly melancholic music is a giveaway that things may be going awry.

Unfortunately, that takes too long to become obvious as lingering shots of Irish coastal scenery, the processing of oysters and fish and furrowed faces dominate.

For me, Mescal is the stand-out of the film, particularly as his character gradually loses favour with his mum.

Meanwhile, his actions bring unexpected sexism, misogyny or downright women-hating among the men in the tight-knit village.

As said, the second half is nailbiting and poses a couple of tingling conundrums but I just wish there had been more spark early on.

Reasons to watch: Emily Watson and Paul Mescal

Reasons to avoid: So slow opening half

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Historically sailors were actually quite bad swimmers. They believed that anyone who fell overboard would die anyway and all swimming enabled a man to do was prolong his suffering, treading water in the middle of the open ocean before dying of exposure.

The final word. Emily Watson: “Nothing is what you expect. The emotion and the stakes become higher and higher as the story goes on, and at the same time, it was clearly written by someone rooted in this world of the water. Everything had that feel of authenticity.”

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