Black Pond (2011)

How sad is this?

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Tom (Chris Langham) and Sophie (Amanda Hadingue) have an ordinary upper-middle-class British life; having raised two daughters to adulthood, they perhaps don't have much to say to each other any more, but they are rubbing along more or less comfortably, companionable at least in their care of their three-legged dog Boy. One afternoon, Tom is walking in the neighbourhood woods and comes across Blake (Colin Hurley), an apparently odd but gentle and perhaps sad man with some strange story-telling ways; on an impulse, Tom invites Blake home for tea, and he ends up staying for the weekend. At the end of which time, unfortunately, Blake has died at the family table; even more unfortunately, news of this gets out to the British tabloids, who accuse the family of being murderers. How they got to that point, and how to straighten it all out again, is the focus of "Black Pond." The story is told documentary-style, with the family members all being interviewed, along with family friend/kind-of mascot Tim Tanaka (Will Sharpe), himself rather confusedly in love with both daughters. As a result, we know at the beginning that Blake will be dead at some point. The way that events unfold is shown in flashbacks, while each family member has an entirely different take on what is going on and on who Blake is, as well. We never fully know who any of these people are, except that they are all quietly unhappy in that snarky, sometimes vicious British way. But they are all generally good people, with the definite exception of Eric Sacks (Simon Amstell), a self-styled "psychotherapist" whom Tim visits, only to be subjected to merciless, mean-spirited mockery. Only at the very end do we find out what really happened, and it turns out to be, in its way, rather beautiful.This is a short film at 82 minutes; it's got a lot of biting dialogue that co-writers Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe have honed to a fare-the-well, and the actors are quite wonderful, especially Langham as Tom and Hurley as Blake - there's a lovely, poetic sense of connectedness between these two men who have been strangers up until 10 minutes ago, and the two actors do a terrific job of bringing that relationship out. If you're not fond of British family (melo)drama, this might not be for you, as the marital relationship in particular is quite harsh and mean at times, but there's much to be said for the simple connections that are also present in the film; one wants to know how these people will be getting along 5 years down the road, or 10. I don't know if there are any release dates set for North America (the showing at FantAsia 2012 was the Canadian premiere), but it's well worth looking out for if it comes your way.

Creepy, uncomfortable, cheap, and actually lacking imagination. It is very confusing when watching the film without the aid of a preview, one doesn't quite understand if it has a serious intent or is just a spoof. The conclusion is quickly that it's a bad spoof. Dysfunctional family, weird outsider, dodgy dog. A dog's dinner. In fact the three legged dog was the best actor. There is a real danger of one being trapped into thinking it's good because it's alternative and built on a £25k budget. It's only just above awful because my compatriots giggled and didn't dump the DVD. but only just. Unfortunately one laughs for all the wrong reasons. Deeply depressing..I lost my sense of humour in the black pond.

I don't know who made this, what their funding was like, but it was very amateurish in feel. It wasn't bad, nothing shockingly awful, but neither was it entertaining, adult or polished.Even accepting it for an indie flick, it just lacked something.Langham was surely cast because they thought it would generate headlines, good or bad but he just lacked something and was phoning it in. The same with Amstell, he clearly did his cameo in one afternoon, probably as a favour to a mate and I wasn't really sure what the point of his character was. Which was a shame because it was his name that sparked my interest.There was no story arc, you were clearly supposed to have already read the DVD cover and we were just there to see how it unfurled.Very disappointing really.

An incredibly impressive debut film from youthful newcomers Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley. Black Pond is a delightfully grim black comedy about the Thompson family, who're embroiled in a tabloid scandal about the death of a new family friend. They say that truth is stranger than fiction and, while this IS fictional, it has a realistic plausibility and a documentary style which makes the almost farcical events seem hilariously absurd in contrast with the repressed sobriety of the upper-middle-class English milieu. It's one of these films that will have you grinning like a Cheshire cat all the way through, giggling and snorting like a child who's just heard an old man fart during a quiet church service and eventually letting out a proper belly-laugh every now and then. Colin Hurley, Amanda Hadingue, Simon Amstell, Will Sharpe (writer/director/actor) and the whole cast are excellent and Chris Langham makes a long-awaited return to film (with the controversy of his own personal ordeal with negative publicity perhaps adding its own somewhat dark undertone to the film – almost definitely NOT a conscious effort by the producers though!). It's a fine example of typically British satirical wit and exemplary of the potential of indie cinema, considering it was made on tiny budget of £25,000. The lack of money means this film will only be seen by few people on its limited release, but as it gathers rave reviews and serious respect, it will no doubt earn cult status by the time it's out on DVD. More like this and more from Sharpe and Kingsley please!