You won't find a dramatic film of more emotional intelligence or intuitive compassion so far this year than Sacha Polak's Silver Haze, a striking coming of age drama that highlights many of the blunt, difficult truths life hurls our way in straightforward fashion not often seen in storytelling. Vicky Knight is a wonder as Franky, a young nurse from working class London who was burned horribly in a building fire as a child, an event she still feels was done on purpose and seeks the perpetrators of, who may be painfully close to home. She strikes up romance with another young girl (Esme Creed-Miles) on suicide watch in the hospital she works in, a turbulent coupling of two souls who have both been through unimaginable trauma and begin to find a modicum of solace in each other, before life has new curveballs to throw both of them. This is a heartbreaking film that doesn't rely on sentimentality to get its point across and make you feel something, it's all about the actors here and they are stunning. Knight was in a fire for real, her scars are genuine and she uses her experience to haunting effect here, giving a multifaceted, mesmerizing turn. Miles has the more difficult role and her character is often easy to judge or dislike, but we the audience know almost nothing of her past beyond the fact the she is a runaway who ended up in the suicide ward, she gives subtle hints in her challenging, thought provoking and searingly human performance. This is a film of unbelievable depth, uncommon emotional complexity and hypnotic, gorgeous London atmosphere, its only Polak's third feature as a filmmaker and she has already achieved what some artists strive for their whole career. A brilliant film, one of the best so far this year.
