Albatross

Jessic Brown Findlay shines but you may find you can't be arsed watching to the end & don't care at all how it ends

As naff as casting women nearer 30 as 18 year olds is, without their beauty I wouldn't have made it through this unsubtle-but-light drama. As lame as that makes me, I'm not lame enough to think another 'charismatic, working-class teen seducing her middle-class friends married father and everyone learns a life lesson' -where none of the characters make sense- film was necessary.

that's the definition of abominable, except, of course, lovely 27 smt Felicity Jones playing 17, somewhere in south coast with tourist panorama, looking like Isle of Man ad. horrible, terrible. every single thing is just simply, plainly wrong. And that 'creative writing' stuff! boy, you know, that is the root of all those crab in bookshelves emanating from that inner inspiration gas

Top badass moment? It’s probably more hardassed than basassed, but our two heroes find a load of cargo from a shipwreck washed up on a beach and start to plunder it, despite that fact that the ship can be see out to sea half sunk. They don’t even consider trying to get help! I guess women are tough on the Isle of Man. I really like this film, which manages to successfully jump around tonally from silly comedy to quite heart-breaking drama. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

Albatross is an unsubtle movie about characters growing by getting rid of burdens that have kept them tied down and unhappy for years. It makes sure that you know this, thanks to characters expressly mentioning that this is exactly what it's about. Its narrative provides ample opportunity for them to develop, by which I mean it's barely there and the film relies on the characters to compel us. It works to an extent, in large part because of Jessica Brown Findlay's performance in the lead.

Emilia (Jessica Brown-Findlay) steals the show with her portrayal of the likable, saucy 17 year old. Beautiful, cheeky and alluring, she has an affair with the husband of her employer, a famous writer. She is a sexy sweet distraction from his otherwise miserable life. She becomes friends with his daughter and the complications multiply. Many interesting and tense moments. It is engaging throughout.

A little stunner of a British film which depicts real life in a very authentic yet cinematic way. There's loads of emotion and peoples' feelings getting trampled on, all revolving around a tour de force performance by Jessica Brown Findlay. Amazingly, the contest of "which young actress is hotter?" takes a back seat to the fascinating family relationships and coming-of-age shenanigans which propel the story. Excellent direction from MacCormick makes this one of the best hidden gems of 2011.

There's no way in hell I can give this a sensible ranking, I'm too smitten with Jessica Brown-Findlay.

"Yes, the title of Albatross is a metaphor. In fact, the eponymous bird shows up not as a figurative chokehold around the neck of simply one character, but at least three." - Andrew Schenker

#12#, story, actresses!