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Far removed from your usual British meet-cute, Kieran Evans’ adaptation of Niall Griffiths’ rough-hewn novel mixes unsafe S&M with social desolation to choppy effect.

Sometime documentarian Evans and DoP Piers McGrail frame Liverpool as a snapshot of battered Britain, while Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Julian Morris commit as lovers linked by despair.

But their characters rarely rise above ciphers, a failure exacerbated as the sex turns savage. The sense of damaged souls passing on their pain is hinted at, but the lack of depth renders the results deadening.

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at GamesRadar+.