Broken

(Rufus Norris/2012/UK)

Eleven year old, diabetic Emily, nicknamed Skunk, lives in a close on a London estate with her dad, brother and au pair. One of her neighbours Rick is mentally fragile and the neighbours on the other side are three girls who have lost their mum and whose dad is struggling to cope and keep them on the straight and narrow. Broken succeeds in setting up a cross section of modern estate life and capturing the little goings on of daily life therein. Where it falls down is squeezing an extravaganza of dramatic events into that frame to get to the climax of the film. It could have been a well observed coming of age film but ends up feeling like an episode of Brookside. Decent performances from all involved and the excellent cinematography of Rob Hardy don’t save it from being overly melodramatic.

(2/5)