This is a tough little Scottish short, downbeat, difficult to watch, unflinching. Two superb performances from the leads, and it is essentially a two-character piece--Gary Lewis you'll recognize as the da in "Billy Elliott" and the fantastic Simone Lahbib, who became one of my favorite actresses ever based on the strength and integrity of her performance as the warden who falls in love with one of the prisoners in her care in the first 3 seasons of the popular brit TV series "Bad Girls" (which we Americans are only now becoming familiar with, tho the show is going into an 8th series.) Lahbib is riveting from the moment the truck driver picks her up in the pouring rain after almost running her down. She's running from something, towards a possibly final destination. We don't know precisely why and never learn exactly. Did she do something so ultimately appalling, or have it done to her? I've never seen someone so apparently intent on suicide from the moment you set eyes on them. It's a heartbreaking and powerful performance, amazing when you realize that she had to get to that point off-screen, totally in her own head. She's one of the great largely unsung and unknown (over here) British actresses working today. She has every bit the power and potential of someone like the phenomenal Helen Mirren.
When he asks her what she intends to do at Land's End when she reaches her destination the stark two word answer she gives is only too gutwrenchingly believable.
When he asks her what she intends to do at Land's End when she reaches her destination the stark two word answer she gives is only too gutwrenchingly believable.