| Synopsis | Careworn teacher Daniel (Cerqueira) is summoned by his elderly mother Mariah (Jones) to his parents’ remote, rubbish-filled, ramshackle cottage, where his infirm and incontinent father, Leonard (Johnson), is refusing to move from the sofa. Disapproved of as a failure by his irascible, demanding father, Daniel eventually persuades Leonard into a specially adapted bed and the care of a visiting nurse. That, in a nutshell, is the darkly amusing plot of director/co-writer Tom Browne’s film, a pithy, highly watchable account of a marriage held together by weary familiarity slowly unravelling despite a son’s best intentions. As two of Britain’s most seasoned character actors, Jones and Johnson give of their terrific best, while co-writer Cerqueira emanates exactly the right degree of frustrated, put-upon affection. A joy. |