Film Only review:

Mia (Katie Jarvis) lives with her couldnt care less young mother and younger sister Tyler on a tough, rough council estate in Essex. Living her life rubbing people up the wrong way, breaking other girls noses and generally in and out of trouble shes 15 heading down the wrong path and looking at her rough mum having parties, smoking and swearing more times and calling the kids any name but their own it very quickly becomes apparent as to why Mia has no direction in life and the attitude she does to others aqnd rules in general.

Life changes though when Connor (Michael Fassbender) becomes her mums new boyfriend. A working man and reasonably young and good looking he tries to befriend Mia and becomes quite a supporter of hers when he realises she can street dance and that she is rather good at it.

Mia sets upon rescuing a horse that she believes to be tied up and mistreated running into three gypsy lads and almost coming off worse showing us the softer side to Mia along with her and her sister getting drunk and smoking which rather shocked me as her little sister only looked about 8 years old!

However Mia and Connors relationship is volatile and just when he thinks they are becoming friends Mia pulls back and isnt able to show affection. However is there an attraction between the two and if so how would that affect things...shes only 15 he looks like he's in his early 30's and he is her mums boyfriend after all...or is he or does he have another situation going on in his life no one knows about?

My Thoughts:

This is a highly acclaimed British movie with recommendations from Time Out and The Guardian giving it 5 stars and Total film also rating it five stars and I quote it as saying 'The best British film of the year' (2010). This film recieved lottery funding and won The Jury Prize at the Festival De Cannes so its fair to say I had high hopes for this one but sadly it failed to hit the spot for me.

Rated 15 this had very crude language in it, not just general swearing but at eachother and some of that felt rather hard hitting espacially when you see how a mother can speak to her children plus although this isnt a violent film there is a scene in it that went straight through me where the mother pinched Mia's arm not wanting her around that really did make me stop and think and for me was one of the most poignant things in the movie.

The film is sterotypical council estate and chavvy and doesn't stop trying to remind you that this is meant to be a gritty and a grubby film. However, this film for me with a runtime of 117 minutes it dragged and then it ended abruptly.

This film did try to be thought provoking and I cant say it failed miserably or anything but to me there wasn't any chemistry between the actors and in my opinion there was no outstanding performance delivered from anyone though I have to be fair Katie Jarvis who played Mia that she did try her best.

This film could of been better its that simple really. It made me tired out watching it and for me its a film to rent opposed to buying it like I did however my copy only cost me £1.28 including P+P from Amazon for a good as new copy so not all was lost on this!

This review is also posted on Ciao under this same username.