Trama

Robson Green stars in a powerful love story exploring the roots of domestic violence.

The film starts with a flashback: Michael and his 9-year-old son Jamie return from a trip on a small boat. Michael has already stepped ashore but the boat then slips its moorings, leaving Jamie stranded as it starts to drift slowly away. Jamie starts to panic but Michael tells him to stay calm, walk to the end of the boat and step across the gap. "Trust me", he says.

Back in the present, Jamie wakes up in his bedroom to hear his parents Michael and Stephanie arguing loudly downstairs. He creeps down unobserved, and peeps through a gap in the door just in time to witness Michael punch Stephanie senseless to the ground.

Next morning Stephanie gets up, does her best with makeup to hide the bruise on her face, then calls for Jamie, only to discover he's not in his room. She sees a note from Michael (whom we saw leaving early) telling her that he has Jamie and not to worry.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Michael are in the car. Jamie thinks he is being driven to school but after they pass the turning Michael informs Jamie they are going to his gran's instead. Remembering last night, Jamie is alarmed and vomits in the car. Michael arrives at the home of his mother Nancy, who gets Jamie cleaned up while Michael goes round the house, dredging up old memories and experiencing flashbacks of his childhood there. Michael's old room contains boxing paraphernalia and certificates that show Michael was a proficient boxer in his youth. Jamie tells Michael he doesn't want to stay. Michael loses his temper and Jamie runs upstairs.

Michael leaves to start his shift at the dockyard where he works as a manual labourer. As he changes into his work clothes, his workmates notice a bruise on his shoulder and make ribald comments about his energetic activities last night. Michael plays along as his workmates engage in laddish banter and tell sexist jokes.

Stephanie is also at work and has a much more high-powered job as an executive in an advertising agency. She prepares to pitch to a potential customer but her mind is elsewhere as she calls various contacts to try to find out where Michael and Jamie went. This causes her to turn up late for the pitch; she's obviously badly prepared, and her boss, who is an unsympathetic bully, calls by her office afterwards to warn her that she'd better keep her mind on the job otherwise he'll find somebody else to take over the account. Eventually Jamie calls her from Nancy's house so she leaves the office to track them down. Nancy tells her they aren't there any more (which is a lie: Jamie is playing in the garden but Stephanie doesn't notice him) so Stephanie goes to the dockyard to confront Michael but has to break off her journey after her boss calls to say she will be fired if she doesn't return to the office immediately.

During these events we see flashbacks showing further details of Michael and Stephanie's relationship. Stephanie is the main breadwinner, so Michael does most of the housework, cooking and childcare, while Stephanie organises exotic holidays which Michael is expected just to go along with. Stephanie gets easily annoyed with Michael and is quick to pick fault and belittle him, sometimes in front of Jamie. Michael has recently started to volunteer to work extra overtime at the docks but Stephanie doesn't approve. She accuses Michael of hiding something and takes every opportunity to point out that she earns far more than he does, so they don't need his money.

After Stephanie's visit, Nancy drives to the docks with Jamie and confronts Michael about Stephanie's bruise and his reasons for walking out on her. Nancy notices the way Michael talks to Lisa, the friendly office girl whom he gets on well with, and asks if there is another woman involved. She points out that she and Michael's late father Fred were together for thirty five years, and in all that time he never laid a finger on her. However the flashbacks we've seen of Michael's childhood paint Fred in a somewhat different light: he was a creepy pervert who sexually abused Michael then gave him 50p to keep quiet about it. Michael never told anybody about this and kept it a dark secret, keeping up the pretence that Fred was a doting family man.

Michael persuades Jamie to return 'home' with his grandmother while he continues his work shift, during which he notices Lisa being bullied by her domineering boyfriend. Michael intervenes, confronts the boyfriend and forces him to apologise which the boyfriend does half-heartedly, then calls Lisa a slut. Michael loses it at this point and punches the boyfriend to the ground. For that, Michael is summarily dismissed and escorted off the premises. Back at the house, Nancy informs Michael that the police have been in touch about the incident at the docks and have asked to speak to him. She points out that he is also going to have to talk to Stephanie at some point.

That evening Jamie is getting ready for bed. He goes into the bathroom but disturbs Michael coming out of the shower. Jamie notices that the bruise which Michael's workmates commented on earlier in fact extends across his back, and he also has bruises to the back of his legs. Michael passes it off as a work accident and Jamie recalls a previous work accident where Michael's fingers got broken. Jamie thinks his dad he should go to hospital but Michael says it's not necessary.

Meanwhile Stephanie is alone in the family home that same evening. She hears Michael's mobile phone (which he left behind) ringing from upstairs and goes to answer it. It's a message from a jeweller to inform Michael that his item is ready for collection. Stephanie goes to get it the next day and is given a box. When she opens it and finds that it contains an expensive ring, she has a panic attack.

Later on, Michael goes to Stephanie's office talk things out with her. Stephanie confronts Michael with the ring and accusing him of having an affair with Lisa, doing all that extra overtime to buy her expensive jewellery. Michael says he's deeply sorry for what happened the other night, then says the ring was intended for Stephanie and was meant to be a surprise to mark their tenth wedding anniversary. Stephanie is overcome with remorse and apologises profusely. She gives Michael back the ring and tells him to give it to her that evening. Michael leaves, taking the ring with him, the eyes of Stephanie's co-workers following him accusingly out of the office.

Back at Nancy's house, Jamie watches out from an upstairs window, sees Michael arriving and visibly recoils when he comes into the room. Michael realises to his consternation that Jamie is scared of him, so he tells Jamie he'll drive him back to his mum. Jamie brightens up considerably, tells 'knock knock' jokes on the way, then asks to stop for a takeaway pizza. Michael agrees, and gives Jamie the money to go in and order it himself. Jamie has never had this responsibility before and waves excitedly to his dad from inside the shop as he waits.

Outside the family home, Michael tells Jamie he has something important to say, and carefully explains he's not coming in; that he is going to live apart from Stephanie from now on. Jamie asks whether it was because he hit her, and Michael realises for the first time that Jamie saw what happened that night. Michael swears that was the only time he has ever hit a woman; that he can never do it again; he had his reasons and Jamie has to trust him. Jamie is upset, and runs into the house without saying goodbye. Michael follows him in with the pizza Jamie left behind. Stephanie is pleased to see him at first, but then realises something is wrong when Jamie starts crying and goes upstairs to his room.

Various flashbacks up to this point have been piecing together what really happened the other night. It transpires that Stephanie is deeply scarred emotionally by her father walking out on the family when she was a child. This has made her obsessively jealous: she constantly accuses Michael of having affairs and resorts to violence when he denies it. That night she attacked him with a knife sharpener across his back and legs (which accounts for his bruises), bringing him to his knees. Eventually Michael managed to hold her off but as he turned away, she raised her arm to have another go at which point he snapped and retaliated, knocking her senseless to the ground with a single blow.

Stephanie begs Michael to stay, but he replies that he can't risk hurting her again; that he can't deal with her jealousy any more; that he can't keep up the pretence that everything is fine like he did with his father. Stephanie then reverts to type, accusing him yet again of wanting to leave because he's having an affair, citing the missing ring he left behind at his mother's. Michael turns to go, at which point Stephanie picks up a heavy pan and gives Michael a colossal blow to the back of his head.

Michael falls seriously injured to the ground, blood pouring out of his head. Stephanie becomes hysterical, shouting at him to get up, asking why he didn't defend himself. The noise brings Jamie back downstairs. Jamie immediately takes control, calls for an ambulance, tells his mother to stand aside, gets a towel to quell the bleeding, tells his father to stay calm, just like Michael told Jamie on the boat. A quick flashback to the boat incident shows Jamie controlling his panic, walking to the end of the boat and stepping across the gap into his father's waiting arms.

Michael hears Jamie's words of reassurance, opens his eyes and manages a faint smile.