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James (Leo Bill), is slightly retarded - or has he just been under too
much medication for all of his life, I'm not sure - and by no means able
to take care of even himself, yet when dad (Roger Lloyd-Pack) is out on a
business trip, James insists on taking care of his bed-ridden mum (Kate
Fahy) , locks the nurse (Sarah Ball) out of the family mansion and
does what he thinks he has to do. The first day, everything goes well even, but
from day two onwards, James is confronted with situations he's unfit to
handle, and finally, he (unintentionally) kills his mum, heavily
overdosing her on her medication. When James' dad and the nurse finally
make their way into the mansion with the paramedics, there's little they
can do - but still, dad stands by his son. James is set under heavy
medication for the next few days, so when his relatives arrive for his
mum's funeral, he is totally oblivious of what has happened, and only
during the actual ceremony, his mum's death somehow dawns on him, and
having a vision of his mum coming to get him, he stabs himself to death. James'
dad has been strong after his wife's death and has been standing by his
son during all the time, but his son's death finally breaks him and he
becomes a basket case very much like his son was. No doubt,
writer/director Simon Rumley tries to tell an ambitious story in his film
- but good intentions don't necessarily make a good movie, and The
Living and the Dead is sad proof of that. The main flaw of the film is
probably Leo Bill's performance in the slightly retarded lead role, which
lacks any kind of subtlety or restraint, so instead of giving his
character any depth he just plays him as an one-dimensional imbecile right out
of a bad comedy. The whole thing though is not much helped by Rumley's
directorial effort either, as he tries too hard to be flashy and modern to
actually tell his story properly, and with techniques like speeded up
shots and multiple-layered soundscapes, he adds extra dimensions to scenes
that simply don't need extra dimensions - and this way he somehow disturbs
the narrative flow of the film as a whole. That all said, this film isn't
all bad, it has its moments of brilliance even, but it's nowhere near the
film it could have been with a better central performance, and a more
restrained, better paced direction.
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