Women and Children (2011) Reviews

• Father's journey to reconciliation with teenage son

  jrt-london2013-08-20

  WOMEN AND CHILDREN Women and Children is an independent British movie. Oh yes, don't tell me: there's this group of five students who find themselves spending the night in the old dark house on the moor. Everyone giggles about its being haunted, but then… Well, if that's what you expect Women and Children to be like, forget it. Daniel Mitelpunkt's film is meticulously realistic, a consistently funny and touching account of one man's journey towards reconciliation with his long- neglected teenage son. Joe, wonderfully played by Mark Boyle, is an ordinary guy, the kind that from time to time you want to shake and yell at "For heaven's sake, pull yourself together man!". That is, like most men (the film is labeled "A Film About Men"), he takes the easiest way out and runs away from big problems. Or has done so a lot in his young life. Consequently, when his present situation throws up a crisis he can't duck, he has to deal, not only with his current girl-friend, newly pregnant, but also his previous lover, mother of his teenage son, her aggressively hostile father, his own coolly dismissive son, and his best-friend couple, neither of whom likes him all that much. The result is entirely unexpected and unpredictable. Mitelpunkt, who also wrote the film, has a light touch and knows well how to keep his story scudding along with the pleasures of surprise. The cast of unfamiliar actors work together immaculately, and unlike practically every independent film I can think of, this one is not ten minutes too long. Women and Children is that great rarity, an unalloyed pleasure.