Dir: Shane Meadows, 2008, UK, 71 mins approx.
Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Kate Dickie, Piotr Jagiello, Ireneusz Czop, Perry Benson, Elisa Lasowski
Review by Martyn Bamber
After the critical and popular success of This Is England, a nostalgic snapshot of early 1980s England and a turbulent coming-of-age story, director Shane Meadows returns with Somers Town, another tale of life in contemporary England. The story focuses on the friendship between two boys; the English Tommo, (Turgoose) and the Polish Marek (Jagiello), and their lives in London. Tommo arrives in the capital from the Midlands needing a place to stay, and meets Marek in a cafe. Marek decides to take Tommo in, but hides the fact from his father (Czop), and the film then follows the two boys on their adventures in London.
The two lads compete for the affections of Maria (Elisa Lasowski), a young French waitress, and their fun courtship of her recalls the playful games of François Truffaut’s trio of lovers in Jules et Jim. Shot in black and white (except for one colour sequence, which could be interpreted as a dream), Somers Town feels like a freewheeling film that is both in the moment and like a fleeting memory; a postcard or photo (much like Marek’s photos of Maria) that briefly chronicle an important time and place in the lives of the boys.
Turgoose, the tough boy from This Is England, returns here and is just as compelling. His character has various indignities visited on him throughout the film (including a mugging), but he is shown to be a resilient lad who becomes more responsible as the story goes on. Jagiello's Marek is a more introverted character than Tommo, but is just as tough. Marek gradually comes out of his shell in the course of the story and finds the confidence to stand up for himself.
Somers Town is a story that is both realistic and poetic, with the bleakness of the settings and circumstances offset by the hopes and dreams of the characters (the homeless Tommo wants to have a place to stay, whereas Marek, who has a home, longs to leave).
With a brisk running time and a focus on two characters in one area of London, this may seem like a minor work in scope and ambition when compared to This Is England (which had numerous characters and dealt with weightier issues), but Somers Town is just as intelligent, moving and funny, and it confirms Meadows’ status a remarkable British film making talent. |
