A young man has a frightening array of demons in his mind. His mind is full of fantasy and anger. A psychiatrist would have to be in their prime to sort out his tangled mind. He is a young man who is prone to putting on war paint and a badger’s fur/head on his head, a bizarre choice of head gear His anger is centred on his step mother, his pain emanates from the shady (was it suicide or something more sinister, as he maintains) death of his mother, a death, he is far from capable of getting over. His home a tree house built by his father, has a sizable billboard like picture of his mother and he has mementos (including a dress) of her to sustain her memory.

At beginning of the film, we witness the awkwardness that weighs down the family. His sister, soon to be parting for Australia, is more diplomatic, Hallam says as he thinks and that means calling his step mother, previously his father’s secretary all manner of things, ranging from prostitute to gold digger. His step mother’s whose lips are caked in thick red lips stick, is a schemer, who seems to have control over the situation, while trying to initiate Hallam’s departure from the family nest. After a steamy encounter, Hallam finally leaves his rustic family pile to go Edinburgh, where a chance sighting of a woman, who perceives to have the looks of his dead mother, sets him off on a new trail.

Hallam played immaculately by Jamie Bell, (who unlike some child actors, who fade away, has matured into playing adult roles) is resourceful and practical young man, who can scale buildings and pick locks. He is a voyeur, a serial peeping tom, who goes well beyond casual inquisitiveness. We are kept intrigued in this film, wondering what he will get up to next. He is well supported by the character of Kate, Sophia Myles his “mother look alike”, who is some ways like him, for different reasons. She is sexually vivacious, changeable like him, acting parts, from being a formal manageress in the hotel where Hallam gets himself employed, to be with her, or a woman in need of sexual gratification, with an unsavoury married man and with the more youthful mixed-up Hallam. They strike up an unlikely relationship.

Francis H. Powell is originally from England and moved to Paris in 1999. In addition to being a writer (articles, songs and poems), he is a painter, DJ and English trainer. For more information, please click here to read his complete bio.

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