Review for Kelly+Victor

Kelly+Victor is a film that should have been made for me. Being from Liverpool, this film at times felt like an advert both for and against coming to the city. This isn't the grim brutality of Nil By Mouth, nor the cheeky optimism of a lot of British films. Instead, it is somewhere in the middle and this makes the film an awkward watch. At times it tries to be brutal, but it feels like they didn't have the confidence to pull it off. Even more awkward is the fact it has (or more accurately Writer/Director Kieran Evans) been nominated for a BAFTA which it really doesn't deserve.

Kelly+Victor tells the story of a couple who meet in a club and embark on a brutal sexual relationship. Similar to Last Tango in Paris, the relationship appears to be just about sex, though they do try to do normal things, it seems the only time they truly connect is when they are having sex. This leads to a number of disturbing sex scenes where Kelly chokes Victor which leads to more extreme pain with shards of glass.

Unsurprisingly, Victor doesn't like this and breaks up with her. What follows is a number of disturbing scenes of Victor trying to cope without Kelly while dealing with a strange drug dealing subplot. Kelly must deal with an abusive ex who appears a number of times, though nothing is really explained about what 'the mistake' he did was.

Fate brings them back together, though for one of them this might not be the happy ending that they may have wanted.

I absolutely hated this film. Every fibre of my being hates the fact that this will be advertised as a potential 'BAFTA AWARD WINNING FILM'. It's amusing to me that one quote they went with for the box cover was 'Daring and Intelligent-Little White Lies' Couldn't be more apt! As I honestly am confused as to what I was supposed to get out of it and it certainly wasn't daring or intelligent?

If they were trying to go for a Last Tango in Paris feel with the sex scenes then they did succeed, but the story that interrupted them was so boring and pointless that I actually wanted to fast forward through all the moving dead foxes and whipping fat businessmen scenes. The sex scenes started off very sexy, but soon morphed into weird artistic montages which eventually just made them boring and just a little odd. Where they supposed to mean something?

The two leads Kelly (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) and Victor (Julian Morris) are so one dimensional that even attempts to make them have depth, such as the interaction between them and their families did not work. The drug subplot sounded like an outtake from a failed Scouse Breaking Bad parody, the scenes with the ex were pointless because we were given no back story to why we should hate or fear him. He pops up and seems ok, seems like he may have turned over a new leaf, but rather than tell the audience 'Hey he beat me' or 'He tried to kill me' we are simply left to deduce that he's a bad man. The only scene were the characters actually looked like real people was when they went walking around Liverpool's Walker Gallery, but even that came across as a poor 'Come to Liverpool' advert.

At ninety five minutes the film doesn't outstay its welcome, but the problem is it doesn't make you want to welcome it in the first place. I can't argue with the way it was shot or the music throughout which was all great and hopefully Kieran Evans' next film will include more of this. However, I do hope that next time he learns how to create (or in this case adapt) a more interesting story.

Extras include the trailer which makes the film seem far more interesting and exciting than it actually was, a Q&A session with Writer/Director Kieran Evans which would have been fine, but the bizarre staging of it with him and the interviewer standing, rocking back and forth for over half an hour is a bit odd. At times, I was thinking 'Just SIT DOWN!' It does answer most of the questions you would imagine about how and why the film was made.

A short film on a charity called The Forgiveness Project is a little strange and maybe if there had been characters in the film who had displayed any inclination to be a part or to even suggest they would do it would make more sense. As it is, it is a nice short film and I understand what the charity is trying to do.

This film is a failure from start to finish. It neither has the grim brutality to tear at your heart strings, nor the quiet optimism that makes you want to see the characters succeed. It is a mess that will be sold on the multiple explicit sex scenes and its overall tone. The only plus side is I'm at least curious to go and read Niall Griffiths' original novel, so at least some good may have come out of it.

Kelly+Victor=A very bad film.