A Way of Life film review

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A WAY OF LIFE

Leigh-Anne is a single mother of seventeen, living without electricity or a fridge in a grotty flat in Cardiff. The baby's father is in prison, and his mother keeps coming round to check up on her grandchild's status. The teenage mum has little light in her life, with cohorts that thrive on theft and taking drugs. When the possession of her child is threatened by social services, a fuse is lit, and an atrocious racially-inspired crime is committed.

Amma Asante's debut film aspires to complement the social realism in the works of Ken Loach or Alan Clarke, but falls woefully short of the mark. Presumably it is meant to capture the underbelly of deprived teenage life in Britain, but the one-dimensionality of its characters and the predictability of its plot gives the viewer nothing to engage with. The cast, which includes the extraordinary participation of Brenda Blethyn, are inexperienced, and deliver performances that clearly miss a firm directorial hand, lacking any form of nuance or subtlety, and instead coming across as a bunch of shrieking teens that have devised their own piece of worthy school theatre. The plot is full of holes: how, for example, would a clearly racist character fall in love with a girl whose father he perceives as Muslim (although he is Turkish), when she repeatedly visits him across the street?

The combined forces of the UK Film Council, the Arts Council of Wales and ITV Wales presumably thought that they were investing in a biting reflection on contemporary society. Instead, it's a dreary mess which would barely compete for television airtime. None of the characters are likeable - they proudly sing the Welsh national anthem and drive around singing along to Stereophonic songs - but there is no sufficient grounding in their hatred of 'Pakis' to explain their moronic behaviour. In the end they are simply cyphers for a voice that desperately wants to say something serious about racism in contemporary Britain.

There might be a great film to be made about racism in our modern culture, but A Way of Life is certainly not it. It should expect a short theatrical release, with audience members craving a slice of bitter modern life left sorely disappointed.