Review of Purely Belter

Introduction

It’s depressing when you realize that much of British comedy/drama is based on a huge fallacy: that moments of humor leaven the indoctrinated social despair of petty British existence, rooted in pedigrees, class gaps and private/public conflicts. ‘Purely Belter’ is the latest proof that laughs don’t lighten the bleakness of the characters’ predicament but crystallize a bleak view of life that borders on nihilism. Along with this primary delusion in Mark Herman’s film, its also hard to tell who exactly he’s criticizing in his tale of two working class boys Gerry (Chris Beattie) and Sewell (Greg McClane), who go to extreme lengths to secure season tickets for their beloved Newcastle football club.

Video

Naturally, this being a British movie through and through, it looks bloody horrible: makeshift photography, lousy locations, perfunctory direction. Aside from that, the transfer itself is sound, with no obvious signs of blemishes or grain.

Audio

I’ll give the jaw-droppingly bad trance music that keeps popping up at inopportune moments the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was just a terrible, terrible mistake. The 5.1 surround track is clear and mundane, with good balance between the rear and centre channels.

Features

Some interviews with cast and crew who reveal little of interest, something which is made all the more annoying by the fact that the clips are repeated wholesale in the basic production featurette. A trailer, some behind the scenes footage, and there’s an annoying commentary with director Mark Herman being quizzed by some sycophantic prannet. Duff.

Conclusion

The insipid premise (stupid title aside) basically consists in ‘poignant’ character interaction scenes buoyed by occasionally raucous get-rich-quick-schemes that lack as much imagination as the rest of the project. Naturally, it goes on forever (even though its only 90 minutes), strafing from one inane episode to the next, arriving at some banal pseudo-profundity before opting out for an ill-conceived happy ending. Typically, the usual pandering for sympathy is complemented by no social examination whatsoever; after all, what use is investigation when shameless empathic plugging through crass dialogue and emotional provocation brings the house down? Despite its façade of grim social reality, ‘Purely Belter’ is as sickeningly sentimental a plea for emotional bloodletting as anything that pours out of the American sap factory.

But Herman’s handle on this kind of twaddle is defter than it seems and as a play on our emotions, this is moderately effective, occasionally bruising stuff. The performances by the central pair are impressive and ‘Purely Belter’ does its best to avoid the pitfalls of this dismally British genre.
However, by the time Gerry pours out his borrowed childhood recollections accompanied by maudlin strings, anyone with even a reasonable tolerance for this kind stuff will reach for the bucket. Low-tech, but petty, charmless and another sure sign that the British film industry is stuck in repeat.