★★½☆☆
2 July 2013
This article is a review of A FIELD IN ENGLAND. |
“The last thing I ate was a stoat; a Welsh one at that.”
If there are any things that link director Ben Wheatley’s four films as director, it’s nonchalance in the depiction of extreme violence, and a pitch-black sense of humour. A FIELD IN ENGLAND shares greatest similarities with his debut, DOWN TERRACE – both confined to pretty much a single location, and both looking to take an affectionately brutal swipe at British mores. Wheatley’s latest goes back in time to the 17th century and the Civil War; and looks at five scoundrels (of varying degree), either attempting to merely stay alive, or focused on betterment at all costs.
Opening on battle sounds, Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) emerges from a hedgerow begging, “Please God don’t let him find me.” Noisy combat is occurring on the other side, off camera. Whitehead is a craven weaselly sort, escaping from his employer’s man, Trower (Julian Barratt), who means to have his life for continued failure. Whitehead appears to have an unusual skillset, he can locate people though sensing them. I might be wrong in the interpretation; A FIELD IN ENGLAND doesn’t lend itself to easy dissection. Amy Jump’s script is stylised olde English, which is simultaneously verbally dextrous and abstruse.
If there are any things that link director Ben Wheatley’s four films as director, it’s nonchalance in the depiction of extreme violence, and a pitch-black sense of humour. A FIELD IN ENGLAND shares greatest similarities with his debut, DOWN TERRACE – both confined to pretty much a single location, and both looking to take an affectionately brutal swipe at British mores. Wheatley’s latest goes back in time to the 17th century and the Civil War; and looks at five scoundrels (of varying degree), either attempting to merely stay alive, or focused on betterment at all costs.
Opening on battle sounds, Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith) emerges from a hedgerow begging, “Please God don’t let him find me.” Noisy combat is occurring on the other side, off camera. Whitehead is a craven weaselly sort, escaping from his employer’s man, Trower (Julian Barratt), who means to have his life for continued failure. Whitehead appears to have an unusual skillset, he can locate people though sensing them. I might be wrong in the interpretation; A FIELD IN ENGLAND doesn’t lend itself to easy dissection. Amy Jump’s script is stylised olde English, which is simultaneously verbally dextrous and abstruse.
Trower is, fortuitously for Whitehead, removed from the equation, and the latter falls into the company of three other army deserters: Cutler (Ryan Pope), Friend (Richard Glover) and Jacob (Peter Ferdinando). Cutler spikes the food of Friend and Jacob with magic mushrooms, beginning a hallucinogenic tone that from that point never lets up. The four men find a rope in the field and pull it until they find the person it is attached to, O’Neil (Michael Smiley) – the outlaw Trower had been hunting. Teaming up with Cutler, the two enslave the other three in order to aid their search for a buried treasure.
We might have been in SEVENTH SEAL territory, tapping into the mystical to shine light on reality, but the dialogue is too cryptic to offer much wisdom. The runtime consists mostly of profane bickering.
“Which is why I have conjured you,” O’Neill
Smiley’s sinister portrayal is part warlock, part soldier of fortune. He owes a lot of money, and his being hunted marshals all his focus to provide an out. The rest of the players are just trapped in his slipstream until hopeful release.
The black and white photography, as with the recent MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, gives a distance, along with the random interludes of the cast posing as if for their portraits. It’s all a bit nutty. Perhaps the goings on might have been more palatable, as one character observes, “What this party lacks is the civilising influence of women.” Wheatley has gone leftfield (ahem!), after going broad via SIGHTSEERS. Though not entirely coherent, A FIELD IN ENGLAND has a loopy determination. Experimental route is ambitious/unsatisfying.