European Films

Scottish director David McKenzie (Young Adam) dives into the psyche of a disturbed teenager in the effective yet light psychological drama Hallam Foe. The adaptation of the Peter Jinks novel might have a few too many music-and-montage pieces and an ending that states the obvious, it is also undeniable that the adolescent peeping Tom is a fascinating character, brought to thrilling life by young Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Dear Wendy) in yet another extraordinary performance. This prime example of European arthouse light comes with a hip soundtrack and a sweet yet believable romance and will travel far and wide. It will also cement the status of both Bell and McKenzie as important names to watch in British cinema.

 

Young Hallam Foe suspects Verity (Claire Forlani), the former secretary of his father Julius (Ciáran Hinds), to have had a hand in the death by drowning of his beloved mother (which has occurred before the film opens). The adolescent’s suspicious nature leads him to spy on his father and the sexy Verity, who has now become his stepmother, recording everything they say and do in private in his dairy. Yes, everything.

When his behaviour puts him in an ugly spot with Verity -- who has started to realise what is happening -- Hallam flees to the big city, where, though Verity and his father are nowhere to be seen, he cannot help but starting to spy on others, including a young personnel manager of a hotel (Sophia Myles, regal) who looks eerily like his dead mother and who eventually gives him a job as a kitchen aide. In a wonderfully directed scene, Hallam uses the job request as an excuse to cover up the fact he was spying on her, giving him shades of a young Tom Ripley in the making.

 

Like Highsmith’s creation, Hallam sees nothing wrong or amoral in his unusual activities, and for the unlikely (and more than a little Oedipal) romance to work between the personnel manager and Hallam, she first has to admit "I like creepy guys", which she does early on, effectively clearing the way for a romance that on the surface feels like any romantic movie cliché but just underneath reveals itself to be a disturbing, complicated case that would have made Freud proud.

 

The abundant use of pop music and its combination with fluently edited montage pieces also reinforce the mainstream feel of the film and do sometimes feel like excuses for proper storytelling. It is a testament to Myles' acting abilities that her character Kate comes off as a full-bodied, damaged and complicated person as well, since she is somewhat shortchanged by the script and editing.

 

McKenzie’s most important accomplishment is finding the right tone and here the director is greatly aided by Jamie Bell. The young actor, most famous for his star-making role as Billy Elliot, is revealing himself to be a future Meryl Streep (only male and British) in the way his own personality seems to become more enigmatic with every role he plays, because he does not simply play each character but actually seems to be the character tout court. Bell really sells Hallam’s teenage confusion; teetering on the brink of madness and conspiracy theories one moment only to be completely absorbed by something seemingly unrelated the next.

 

The film’s screenplay, by the director and Ed Whitmore, could have been more detailed about Hallam’s state of mind and its origins and permutations, but Bell largely makes up for this with a nuanced performance that suggests a lot of psychological turmoil under his composed outer appearance. Perhaps it is better not to know everything about Hallam: the film’s ending explains too much and is a tad too facile, robbing Hallam of much of his enigmatic qualities just before the animated end credits roll in. 

This film was screened as part of the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. 

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