Dir:
Penny Woolcock, UK, 2006, 93 mins
Cast: Kelli Hollis, Ramon Tikaram, Christopher Simpson
Review by Philippa Bradnock
According to Penny
Woolcock’s new
film ‘Mischief Night’ is a night of mayhem celebrated
in the North of England. Children pull pranks and adults
embrace intoxication of various sorts. Mischief Night the
film tracks the events of the days leading up to the celebration
and revolves around two families in the Beeston area of Leeds.
Pakistani and white families live segregated by a park. On
one side, the Crabtrees are headed by matriarch Tina (previously
of Tina Goes Shopping and Tina Takes a Break). On the other,
the Khans live with Immie as, if not its head, at least its
moral centre.
The two families’ lives become entwined when Tina’s
daughter Kimberley learns that her father, who she thought
was dead, may still be alive. She decides to find out who
he is and goes to the other side of the park to find out.
Soon she has made friends with Asif, Immie’s brother,
who is in trouble with the local drug dealer, Immie and Tina
have rediscovered their schooldays liking for each other
and Tyler is embarking on an ambitious plan to usurp his
granddad as the main drug dealer on their side of the park.
There’s also a story about Islamic fundamentalists
taking over a local mosque, Immie’s sister Sarina attempting
to reject her arranged marriage and Tina’s youngest
son Macauley concocting plans to terrorise the inahbitants
of the most ‘dangerous’ street in the neighbourhood.
Mischief Night comes with much publicity
around its ties to Channel 4’s TV series Shameless
and it feels like a feature length episode. The same frenetic
storytelling, outsized but simplistic characters and unlikely
coincidences run through the film. Characters realise they
have to beat the clock to stop someone getting into trouble
/ getting into more trouble / getting shot, but somehow
it all works out beautifully in the end.
Likewise, Mischief Night displays
the same suspension of moral judgement over its characters’ behaviour, so
Grandad deals drugs and turfs old ladies out of their homes,
Immie’s younger brother Asif joyrides in a stolen car
and Tyler uses the junkie-mother-next-door, Jane, to try
out his newly cut heroin. But they are all presented as cheekily
lovable rather than dangerous ASBO contenders. As in Shameless,
behaviour that is at the very least morally dubious is deftly
presented for most of the film as comedy. There are moments
of gravity for each of these issues, so Tyler speaks to a
mute and grimy Baby (because Jane doesn’t seem to have
named her child) and reveals his own uncertainty about his
new career. What matters here is not global ethics but interpersonal
relationships. If you can be said to have done right by someone
you have done right.
The film rockets smartly along and the plot is executed
efficiently. While some of the acting is weak the children,
particularly Kimberley, carry their parts admirably. And
the blossoming relationships between Immie and Tina and Kimberley
and Asif are tenderly drawn.
If Mischief Night has a problem it
is that it starts off more big issues than it can deal
with adequately: drug use, drug dealing, arranged marriage,
inter racial relationships, Islamic fundamentalism… Sometimes it just feels like
too much is happening, too many things are thrown into the
mix. Sarina’s scenes suffer particularly. She is an
interesting character with a potentially dramatic story but
has only three or four scenes in which to tell it. The voiceover,
another trait from Shameless, which attempts to tie these
different parts together, also weakens it, often relating
action that we see simultaneously or in the next scene. But
the film is fun and enjoyable and these issues are easily
overlooked amid its colour and energy.
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