• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film

The Levelling: Film Review

By James McAllister Confronting us with the devastating divisions that helped provoke last year’s Brexit vote, here is a shatteringly sombre social-realist drama that moves away from the traditional inner-city environment regularly frequented by the likes of Ken Loach, and rests its focus on rural Somerset’s stark landscape. Set mere months after the winter floods […]

Kit Power by Kit Power
2017-05-11 22:23
in Film, Film Reviews
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

By James McAllister

Confronting us with the devastating divisions that helped provoke last year’s Brexit vote, here is a shatteringly sombre social-realist drama that moves away from the traditional inner-city environment regularly frequented by the likes of Ken Loach, and rests its focus on rural Somerset’s stark landscape. Set mere months after the winter floods that decimated the Somerset Levels back in early 2014, The Levelling follows Clover (Ellie Kendrick), a trainee vet who returns home to the family farm after the death of her brother. There she is faced by the shocking aftermath of the rains; the house is in ruins, many of the fields remain waterlogged, and her estranged father, Aubrey (David Troughton), looks to be edging closer to the end of his tether as he endeavours to keep calm and carry on.

Writer-director Hope Dickson Leach, making her first feature film, appears to be spurred less by likes of Loach and Clio Barnard – although their influences are still visible – and more by the profoundly naturalistic work of the Dardenne brothers. Regularly capturing the action using a handheld camera, Leach deftly uses confined close-ups and narrowed angles to intensify the grief that’s shared by Clover & Aubrey, whilst also emphasising the guilt & disconnect that exists between them. As the funeral approaches, both father and daughter must seek to forge a new understanding, leading Clover down a path of emotional reckoning that forces her to face a past she would rather forget, and a future that suddenly seems so uncertain.

Haunting performances from Kendrick & Troughton further accentuate the growing torment of the two central characters, but it is arguably the austere backdrops of Somerset that offer us a more pronounced and palpable sense of their suffering: DP Nanu Segal using the flat & forbidding countryside to augment a bracingly cold mood, which lingers with a stinging potency that perfectly underscores the power of Hope Dickson Leach’s assured debut.

The Levelling is in cinemas from Friday 12th May.

RelatedPosts

Give Them Wings Premiers in Darlington

Final Thoughts on Cannes 2022

Cannes 2022 Review: Tori and Lokita

Cannes 2022 Review: Pacifiction

Tags: Ellie KendrickHope Dickson Leach

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Norway’s left-wing opposition wins general election by a landslide

SNP MP gives Downing Street Xmas party the duck test in hilarious Commons speech

Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today 18 January 2023

The Indy called Andrew Neil an ‘outsider’ and Twitter can’t stop laughing

Participants receive first dose of experimental coronavirus vaccine

Heston Blumenthal’s The Hinds Head gets a dramatic makeover

Scientists believe there may be life on the Moon after Israeli spacecraft crash

London’s Best New Restaurant Openings – February

Labour activists ‘egged, pushed and kicked’ on Batley and Spen campaign trail

Starmer shrugs off hecklers, takes on ‘trivial’ Tories in conference speech

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.