Broken

Broken

Broken

Broken

'Broken' is a film about a young girl named skunk, her life is turned upside down after witnessing a violent incident happen to one of her neighbours. From then one things go from bad to worse amongst the neighbourhood and her own family. This film is acting debut of Eloise Laurence who plays Skunk, she is faultless. She keeps Skunks emotions right on the edge of her sleeves which makes her performance more real. When you look at her you can't help but smile even when it's a serious scene, she is just so cute and so amazingly talented. I hope to see her more in the future. Tim Roth plays Skunk's dad Archie. As always Tim is amazing, he really brings all the emotions a father would feel towards his daughter and puts it into his performance and let's face it, who wouldn't want Tim Roth as their on-screen father? Cillian Murphy plays Mike, the boyfriend of their au pair Kasia, he also becomes Skunk's teacher. Murphy plays Mike as the most loyal/devoted boyfriend who anyone would want, Which makes him a really likable character and even comes to Skunk's rescue which I think any girl would want. You really feel for him when things turn upside down on him, and want to reach out a give him a hug. Plus he keeps is Irish accent for this one! 'Broken' is a film full of emotions, be them happy, sad, anger or love. This film is an emotional roller-coaster ride with some brilliant actors and some wonderful singing from the lead lady herself.

Rufus Norris's Broken is like the early Ken Loach social dramas ramped up to the breaking point. Where British social realism centered on the working class, Broken examines three families in an upper middle class close. The characters live in spacious, well-appointed houses in a quiet North London neighborhood. So class is not an issue here. Nor is economics. Nor even is race, as the classroom easily accommodates some black children and an aerial view shows a black kid practicing his dance moves in the school parking lot -- that even the sensitive teacher Mike Kiernan (Cilliam Murphy) is too self-observed to notice. Instead of those familiar problems, here the issue is -- as you may or may not have inferred from the title -- breakage. The people are broken. Bob Oswald (Rory Kinnear, unrecognizable) is explosively violent, especially in defense of his equally fragile/brutish three daughters. Teacher Mike can teach courage but can't marshall his own to commit to his love Kasia (Zena Marjanovic) until it's too late. The most literally broken character is Rick (Robert Emms), who suffered brain damage from a childhood drowning and here moves from being beaten by Oswald into killing his own helplessly well-meaning parents. His mother's welcome home cake may not be broken but it has collapsed. The families are broken. Solicitor Archie (Tim Roth) lost his wife to an accountant (!) and struggles to raise his daughter Skunk (Eloise Lawrence) and son Jed (Bill Milner). Oswald's wife died, leaving him to do the ironing and to express his paternal manhood by beating up any alleged threats to his girls. Though united in love and caring, even Rick's parents quarrel loudly over how best to handle him. When Kasia loses patience with her fiancé Mike she turns to Archie, but her switch from nanny to possible stepmother rouses Skunk to feeling abandoned even by her father: "Because she'll leave us the way she left Mike. Like Mum left us. Like everyone does." Oswald loses one daughter, Archie almost loses his, and the Buckleys lose their son in the most dramatic form of family destruction. At the root of the breakage lies a barely repressed violence. Oswald explodes twice, savagely beating first Rick, then Mike -- in trying to be a good father. But down the spectrum of violence Rick's mother (Clare Burt) tries to physically keep Rick from his room, leading to her death. Even the civilized Archie almost loses control in the police station, out of his concern for his missing diabetic daughter. He has to be restrained by his son. The gentle teacher Mike smashes a chair when he owes his freedom to his lost girl's lover. Indeed Broken is a reflection of a broken nation, a shattered culture. There are no community norms any more, no accepted guidance for the children, no community even among the families enjoying the closeness of their close. Their father jailed, the girls throw a wild party. The characters may as well be hard scrabble screamers in the council flats. Perhaps the film's central metaphor is the automobile junkyard, where impersonal giant jaws shuffle the wrecks from place to place. There Skunk finds refuge in an abandoned van. Skunk provides the film's one optimistic note and it's enough to balance all the despair. Like the lawyer's daughter Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird, Skunk comes of age learning decency from her dad in an indecent, violent, dishonest world. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.

Broken adapted from a novel and directed by Rufus Norris better known for his theatre work. The film is set in a London cul de sac and is a slice of life story with plenty of acknowledgements to the classic novel, 'To kill a Mockingbird.' Eloise Laurence plays Skunk, a cheery 11 year old tomboy who sees her neighbour (Rory Kinnear) severely beat up another neighbour, a mentally challenged teenager (Robert Emms) who he thinks raped his daughter and made her pregnant. The accusation is false as all of Kinner's daughters are malevolent and rough and its not the only accusation of rape they make in the movie. Skunk's dad is a kindly lawyer (Tim Roth) who is respected by many of the other neighbours. They have an au pair who is in a relationship with schoolteacher (Cillian Murphy.) Skunk also starts a budding relationship with another boy at the same time she faces bullying at high school and when Emms returns to the estate after his beating still traumatised, events take a nasty turn. Norris brings the best of his actors as he coaxes both Murphy and Roth back from Hollywood and he definitely gets the most out of the young actors. The script is poor and fights against the film. The Kinnear character should had been thrown in prison for the first beating never mind been allowed to do it again the second time. It does not matter if a traumatized boy does not want to press charges he was in no such state to make a rational decision. The drama with the on/off relationship with the au pair and the teacher as well as the au-pair later getting close to Skunk's dad was rather humdrum. What I disliked the most was people getting bullied, beaten up and no effective action being taken against the perpetrators even if witnessed by teachers for example. Of course the title of the film wants to depict a Broken Britain, damaged people who look for those rays of goodness but this film lacks focus and a cutting edge.

British Cinema at its best.What a great movie, with this original story, I was almost back in my childhood village. It is very easy to watch and to be drawn in by the simplistic easy going style of the director,But this story is moving tender and very realistic. Tim Roth is so excellent in this and the girl playing his daughter in the film a character Spunk is awesome and beautiful(really)along with the younger Oswald sibling. Brilliant. The acting from the girls blew me away ! So good. It kept me interested and wanting more. All the characters are played Oswald,Rick and Rick's parents everyone is placed so well,alongside remarkable direction and brilliant cinematography. AWARD winning movie.Please support this great British project. Please go and see some wonderful talented actors and actresses at there best.

Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy and Denis Lawson, what great actors so surely this must be worth the risk? Yes, the acting was great, even down to the youngest was without fault. Each character was well crafted and easily believable. Their scene interactions had energy and at times where touching and poignant. In retrospect this film could have been in the same class as "A Taste of Honey" and certainly had the potential. The direction seemed to me to be trying too hard with the clever overlapping scenes and out of context spoiler clips, but this didn't detract too much from the experience and I'll concede it did add some value in terms of visual style. The most frustrating aspect of the movie was the story which just didn't stick to reality in terms of how people would behave in the situations depicted. It appeared to be done this way to make the plot lines link together properly. What resulted was basically the sort of lazy writing seen in teen horror or thriller movies that makes you think "that wouldn't happen" or "you wouldn't do that". After a while it got so tiresome I lost interest in the characters, was just about to turn it off, but then the film ended... With all it had going for it, I really wanted to like this film. Afterwards I felt very on edge, like I'd had too much coffee. I thought perhaps I had misunderstood something or needed to let the film sink in before evaluating it. Then I realised what it was. I hated it!

Nice music, well shot, and well acted. A pretty impressive cast, considering the slight nature of the screenplay. For me, this film was a bit of a mess, in terms of theme and tone. What was it about? Who was it about? It just seemed to meander from one thread to the next at random. It goes from serious drama, to melodrama, to soap, to Grange Hill level kids' story. The film felt like random dramatic moments pasted together without too much thought. One minute its improvised ultra realism, with the kids messing about on the sofa. Next minute, we're watching weighty drama. This happens without in such a clumsy way, you begin to feel confused and detached. The characters are not developed. Ideas and narratives are touched on and then dropped as we switch to some other idea or characters. Finally the film moves into the last act where a series of absurdly, clichéd dramatic events are used to build the loose threads to some kind of climax. There are some nice moments. But overall, it just doesn't come together and is too poorly written.

While watching this movie i was thinking about some concepts, specially the appearances and the truth behind any person, any event, any story, and also the power of sex as source of problems. These concepts have a very good case study in this British film, I want to underline "British" because I think it is important and it really gives a particular identity, those streets, accents, looks, school uniforms, habits, etc. are so heavy that it is definitely not a random feature. What I really want to stand out is the performance of Eloise Laurence as "Skunk", she gives her character a tremendous freshness, she is very natural and convincing and above all, her face keep us under a beautiful spell. The rest of the cast is also excellent, and everything combines to give a quality film we can really enjoy despite of the drama.