CinemaSerf
5.0/10Mar 27, 2022
This is quite an interesting observational piece that goes some way to illustrating the lack of opportunities and activities in small, one-industry, towns. This film is based around Fraserburgh - a town of 13,000-odd folk in the north of Scotland that is home to a fishing fleet but very little else. Mark Stanley is "Finnie" a Fraserburgh lifer who works in a fish processing factory. His son does too, at least until the start of this 24 hour dip into their family lives. His wife works in a hairdressers and they have another younger schoolboy child. Late at night, after a fairly "lively" attempt at a family dinner, "Finnie" borrows his son's car and goes for a bit of a joyride - picking up his son's pregnant ex-girlfriend en route and they race a few local youths then the breakers on the sea wall... anything for an adrenalin rush, it would seem. Unfortunately, we only really get a superficial look at the characters; the frustrations and mundanity of their existence is writ large, but therein lies the film's problem - it is a bit like watching goldfish in a dirty bowl; we see but cannot empathise or really engage. There is lots of pent up anger amongst the family; but also some affection - which neither "Finnie" nor his son "Kid" (Anders Hayward) have a clue how to demonstrate. It is worth watching, but is remarkably unfulfilling and empty.
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