Rufus Norris

BROKEN

to the screen. With numerous outstanding performances and a refreshingly natural style of direction, Broken is an enviable sort of film. One that, though far from perfect, is enough to make numerous aspiring or estab-lished filmmakers jealous of the resounding confidence and skill with which Norris handles the film. Set within a number of colliding storylines in a North London cul-de-sac, at the heart of the film is Archie (Tim Roth) and his daughter Skunk (Eloise Laurence). Their loving and close relationship

Already a critically acclaimed and award winning theatre director, Rufus Norris’ Broken is an astonishingly assured and emotionally chaotic debut as a film director. Much like the great skills of fellow theatre - turned film - director Sam Mendes, Norris has made it clear that the intimate and startling performances he is able to form on stage can be seamlessly translated

Words ByJack Jones

is surrounded by chaos and broken relationships. Whilst others fall by the wayside, Archie and Skunk’s love is true and devoted. Emotions run high, however, when a series of false accusations and violent outbursts threaten the bonds between this small community. Though the film sways into the platitudinous of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s style of interlinking-

narrative storytelling, there is plenty of wonderful character interplay within each individual scene to forgive the films lack of consistent focus. Tim Roth perfectly embodies the loving and doting father to Skunk and his son Jed. As the emotional anchor of Broken, Roth effortlessly offers a comforting presence in only the smallest gesture

of his character’s mellow persona. And in Eloise Laurence is another unearthing of young British acting talent that makes the rest of the world so envious. Like Roth’s own early ventures into acting, there is something raw and instinctive that Laurence brings to the screen. As a tale of actions and consequences, Broken could easily have bedded down with endless

miserablism and social realist tendencies. But Norris finds enough moments of refreshing innocence and humour to undercut the darker moments, not to mention a curiously spiritual creschendo. Rob Hardy’ssparkling cinematography also lendsitself to the generally uplifting toneto which the film aspires. Maybe themessage here is that life inevitablyis never without sorrow.