Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Charlie Booty | ... | Baby Skunk |
Lily James | ... | Older Skunk | |
Tim Roth | ... | Archie | |
Eloise Laurence | ... | Skunk | |
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Lukas Fernandes-Pendse | ... | Harry Barlow |
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Michael Fernandes-Pendse | ... | Henry Barlow |
Robert Emms | ... | Rick | |
Rory Kinnear | ... | Bob Oswald | |
Faye Daveney | ... | Saskia | |
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Martha Bryant | ... | Sunrise |
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Clare Burt | ... | Mrs. Buckley |
Denis Lawson | ... | Mr. Buckley | |
Paul Thornley | ... | Policeman 1 | |
David Webber | ... | Policeman 2 | |
Bill Milner | ... | Jed |
A terrific cast including Cillian Murphy and Tim Roth lead this British kitchen sink drama inspired by To Kill a Mocking Bird and adapted from Daniel Clay's novel. Theater director Rufus Norris smartly opts for an impressionist rather than classical approach to the material and modern setting. Written by yusufpiskin
So simple and yet so complicated, as often life can be. Normal houses and plain faces on your block often conceal mini dramas. A cul de sac, to be precise, symbolic perhaps of the impasse that certain characters in "Broken" have reached.
Hats off to the director (and editor?) for the way certain sequences were handled. You would see a scene - the conclusion of certain events - and at the right moment (when you'd start wondering "when and how did this happen?"), the action would rewind itself and everything would make sense. From effect to cause...
I guess this movie is not for the "Batman" crowd. No jumping off roofs, no wild chases, no gunshots, just bleeding. The real kind that could happen to your sister or brother or parent or child. Or to your neighbour. The kind that you might read about in the newspaper the next day. Bleeding external and bleeding internal. Of the lip and of the heart.
The acting was very convincing. Not the kind that sticks in your mind forever, but that's exactly what I consider to be one of the film's main assets: the lack of exaggeration in the delivery of the lines is what makes the story plausible, real, as if though you're witnessing events unfold outside your window.
And hats off to the new kid on the block. Eloise Laurence is a natural. I'd love to have her for my daughter too! Or sister. Or neighbour. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more from her. And from director Rufus Norris. The chain must not be broken.