Burns Night Film: Hallam Foe
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A Haggis rendition by a true Scot* and Whisky Sour cocktails!
David Mackenzie, 2007, UK, Colour, 96 mins, Certificate: 18
“The joy of my heart is to ‘study men, their manners, and their ways,’ and for this darling object I cheerfully sacrifice every other consideration”, Robert Burns, Scotland’s beloved poet, who we celebrate this month, on Burns Night, his birthday, once confessed.
And what a man to study is Hallam Foe. What a peculiar, twisted, haunted, but ultimately darling object.
A rebellious teenager on the cusp of adulthood, a loner with a complicated (to say the least) relationship with his stepmom, he habitually spies on people from above (first from his tree-house, then from Edinburgh’s rooftops), engages in questionable, kinky relationships, and obsesses with his mother’s death, which he decides was a murder after all and attempts to solve and take revenge for.
He is curious, enthusiastic, adventurous and seemingly fearless. But he is also a creep, a menace, that can be cruel and almost ruthless. Yet, the way Jamie Bell brings him to life he is irresistibly captivating, thoroughly understandable, and unmistakably, utterly human.
As are everyone around him, his broken father (Ciarán Hinds), his misguided, love starved step mother (Claire Forlani), his “naughty”, at times hilarious hotel coworkers, and his inappropriate and at the same time perfectly suitable new girlfriend (the equally mesmerizing Sophia Myles). Indeed, as is this perpetually on knife’s edge film, between darkness and light, tragedy and comedy, damnation and redemption.
A retrograde who-done-it. A refreshingly different coming of age story. An imaginative study of the voyeuristic nature of the art of cinema itself. A weirdly wonderful and edgy romance, plus the most intriguing exploration of Oedipal Complex you’ll ever see on the big screen. A love letter to Edinburgh, where it is filmed in its entirety. And, an unexpectedly emotive family drama, David Mackenzie’s (Young Adam, Hell or High Water), Hallam Foe, is original, absurd, extraordinary, fascinating and the perfect film for Burns Night.
* Our friend from The Sydenham Society, Barry Milton.
Reviews:
“Foe is a reverse Hamlet in Macbeth country with a little Phaedra thrown in for good measure, and the fact that you can leave the theater feeling sympathy for such an outrageously fucked-up antihero has everything to do with Bell’s terrific, heartbreaking performance.” James Hannaham, Salon
“ What truly makes the movie unique is how Mackenzie, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ed Whitmore, can credibly maintain an artistic vision that is both entirely cynical about people’s true nature and yet ultimately hopeful at the same time… [And Bell’s] performance is perfectly controlled, carefully nuanced and utterly, convincingly real at every turn. [He] is a large part of why this lovely oddball of a film works so well. ” David Wiegand, San Fransisco Chronicle
“An intriguing rites-of-passage story with a delirious, skewed perspective and an almost palpable sexual pulse. ” Damon Wise, Empire
“JAMIE Bell has his best role since “Billy Elliot” in a darkly comic tale of a twisted teen on the cusp of adulthood… “Hallam Foe” is especially worthwhile for the chemistry between Bell and Myles – who memorably trade slang terms for genitals in one scene – and a backstage look at the workings of an Edinburgh hotel… ” Lou Lumenick, New York Post