The Britain in this BIFA-winning debut feature from theatre helmer Rufus Norris may not be broken, but it sure is fractured.
And the same applies to the chronology used to tell this tale of class warfare in a suburban cul-de-sac, viewed through the eyes of one spirited 11-year-old (appealing newbie Eloise Laurence), which comes to involve her father (Tim Roth), brother (Bill Milner), teacher (Cillian Murphy) and admirer (Robert Emms).
The result believably charts a girl’s coming of age but is eventually capsized by lurid melodrama even Brookside would have found excessive.
