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Starring |
Annie Townsend
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Danny Groenland
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Directed By |
Joe Lawlor and Christine Malloy
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Audio
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Dolby Digital 5.1
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Visuals
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2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
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Running Time |
77 mins
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UK Release Date |
September 7, 2009
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Genre |
Drama
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Our Rating |
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User Rating |
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This extraordinarily haunting British drama will stick in your head for weeks and is certainly one of the most original debuts for years. It turns everything to its advantage – its low budget, its largely amateur cast, slow pace – to create one of the most startling and emotionally draining stories in a long time.
The story is deceptively simple. Joy, an 18-year-old college girl, who’s bright, popular, attractive and generous, disappears in the woods on her way home. We never see her face, just her form and the iconic yellow jacket she is wearing as she strolls home. The police investigate and decide to reconstruct her last movements, casting Helen to play Joy, who’s a girl from the same college with a similar build and hairstyle. Helen is from a care home, with no idea of her past, no knowledge of who her parents are, and apparently no friends. She meets Joy’s parents and boyfriend, and slowly starts to become the missing girl, with alarming and devastating consequences.
The story is told with total precision, from the opening shot of Joy walking home through a beautiful autumnal park, to an apparently random scene but important scene where she discusses identity with an immigrant cleaner in the hotel where she works. Annie Townsend as Helen was cast by the directors not for her acting but for her low-key presence, and it works perfectly. The yearning in her eyes as she asks Joy’s boyfriends about their life together is heartbreaking. There’s also plenty of ambiguity here – does she sleep with him or not? How long does she spend with Joy’s parents? To an extent it is left to your imagination.
What is not open to interpretation is the devastating ending in which, having turned 18, Helen has access to her files and can find out the details of her early life. It has one of the emotional final lines in recent film history. If that’s not enough, there’s a short film on the disc not shown in the theatrical versionm called Joy, which rounds things off superbly.
Overall verdict: For a low-budget indie film with no stars it packs a huge emotional punch. Gorgeous photography too.
Special Features:
‘Joy’ Short film which adds to the mystery
Director Interview
Reviewer: Mike Martin
