March 11, 2013

"Broken"

"Broken" is a coming-of-age drama about an 11 year old diabetic girl called Skunk.  An unstable single father's violent attack on a disabled neighbour marks the first of a series of changes that impact her life and force her to deal with her fears.


It's difficult to comment on "Broken" without giving too much of the plot away.  The debut feature from British theatre director Rufus Norris weaves beautiful, documentary-style shots, starkly punctuated editing and non-linear storytelling together in a humourous and touching way. Or at least it does for the first two thirds of the film.  The final third (or "Act") suddenly descends into unmitigated madness.  It's shocking, and harrowing, but feels oddly out of place, and more like an attempt to shock and pull heart strings.  Let's just say it makes sense that Norris was formally a theatre director.

On the positives:  I'm a big fan of both Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy, and overall the acting was fantastic.  Also the theme song carved a place in my heart - it's a cover of a the Blur song "Colours", and it's ridiculously catchy :)




Sweet to watch to a point, after that I felt manipulated.  5 / 10.

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