I saw this movie recently at a special Student premiere in Leicester Square in London. I'd read a few reviews from various magazines about the movie and its lack of Narrative structure, but from watching the first 5 minutes, I knew this was something special. This has to be one of the most powerful British Movies ever made. The acting is superb, the whole cast is brilliant especially the children. Lynn Ramsey directs her feature debut with confidence and professional ability, and the result is stunning. The Narrative does give way slightly after the "accident" and the movie seems to forget about that fateful day on the canal, it seems to drift a little, but this, as I found out afterwards was on purpose. The movie was originally envisaged as 20 short stories which came into one, and it was also designed so the audience would always have this event in the back of their minds throughout the movie and whenever something relevant happened you were instantly reminded of it. Their are a few minor controversial scenes in the movie which some members of the audience did not agree with and others simply laughed off - I was not bothered about the main controversial scene but could see and hear that some people were offended. The setting of Glasgow in the late 1970s is well represented, and set around the dustbin men strike of '76. The atmosphere of living in a disease ridden place like this with rubbish piling up on every corner is almost tangible. The balance between bleakness and humour is never crossed too far either side. The subject matter is very depressing and humour was therefore injected in places (such as the rat on the moon sequence) to lighten up the audience and not have them leaving the cinema depressed.
This movie is a real stunner, don't be fooled by reviews and magazines saying otherwise go and see this movie at the first possible chance. You will not be disappointed.
