The Principles of Lust film review

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THE PRINCIPLES OF LUST

Writer/director Penny Woolcock was obviously schooled in the gritty dramas of Alan Clarke before she had television success in the late 90s with Tina Goes Shopping. Now she returns with her first full-length feature, filmed back in 2001 and according to the press release squeezed in between Woolcock%u2019s other filming commitments. The lack of time devoted to the project is more than obvious as this pale imitator of realisitic social drama veers wildly from the uneven to the downright pretentious.

Alec Newman plays Paul, a perpetually unemployed would-be writer who one day crashes his car into an unhinged Billy (Marc Warren). We know Billy is unhinged because he shouts a lot, takes drugs, introduces Paul to various strippers and eventually persuades him to come to some bare knuckle fighting. Involving children. Through Billy, Alec also meets the gorgeous Juliette (Sienna Guillory), moves in with her and her son and sponges off her while she goes out to her day job. The trouble is Billy also wants Juliette and as the climax arrives, all three are caught in a sexual web.

By using children fighting, Woolcock is presumably trying to both shock and open the audience%u2019s eyes. She fails to do so, and you get the distinct impression that everyone involved in shooting this was under the spell of the director and that they thought were making a really important film about modern sexuality. Unfortunately for them, they were actually making something that would barely pass muster in a student film competition.

This is also unfortunate because Woolcock has at least persuaded three decent young actors to join the proceedings. Alec Newman seems unsure whether he is supposed to be playing a good guy or a bad guy and his voiceover seems oddly to differ from his actions. Marc Warren is suitably deranged as the nutter and is reminiscent of a young Malcolm Macdowell, while Guillory gives her heart and soul into a difficult and challenging role. All three are way better than the film itself.

As for the rest of the cast, Woolcock tries to inject some northern grit into the proceedings by casting non-actors in several roles. Some of them acquit themselves well, but one or two are given bigger parts that they clearly have no idea what to do with.