Review of Madagascar Skin

Introduction

Film titles can certainly be misleading. On first hearing the name `Madagascar Skin`, your thoughts are probably drawn to cheap porn or the recent Dreamworks animation starring a host of Hollywood A-listers. Unless you had previous knowledge of its content, you would be unlikely to finger the premise as being two outcasts meeting up on a remote part of the British Isles and eventually falling for each other`s hidden charms. If you were a big fan of the cult `classic` `Withnail and I`, but felt that that there wasn`t really enough homoeroticism or Scottish countryside, then this could be the DVD for you.

The film stars John Hannah (`The Mummy`, `Circus`) as shy gay man `Harry`, who has a facial scarring in the shape of an Island off the coast of Africa (giving the film its name), and Bernard Hill - last seen as Theoden in `Lord of the Rings` - as supposedly macho straight man `Flint`. After becoming disillusioned with the gay scene, Harry elopes to the coast to spend some time in his van with just the sea, a good book and himself for company. Yet, when he finds Flint buried in the sand, things go from bad to worse, but find themselves on an upwards trajectory before long.

With two fantastic actors who have proven their credentials elsewhere (Flint has appeared in 3 films which have won best picture at the Academy awards - LOTR, `Titanic` and `Gandhi`), the idea of a movie featuring them pretty much exclusively should be enough to make fans of low budget Brit Flicks cheer with delight.

Video

Extremely stylised and hopelessly arty, the first half an hour of the film contains minimal dialogue and so tries to survive on images alone. With that in mind, I`m glad to say that the colour palate has been trawled for some of the more lively scenes, whilst those parts wishing to portray the dismal reality of the characters` situations manage to with great success.

More than anything else, however, it is an extremely British looking picture. That may sound slightly odd, but it is certainly a DVD which visually portrays these Isles accurately, and with great respect.

Audio

There`s nothing instantly reportable in `Madagascar Skin` from an aural POV. What does strike you, though, are the field recordings which put you in mind of either the coast, or the countryside cottage - both often used locations in the film.

Features

All there seems to be is a Gallery and some Biographies. Hardly the Art-House spirit of the pictures which the film so neatly imitates in parts, but there you have it.

Conclusion

Despite the many downsides of the film, it says a lot of the strengths that `Madagascar Skin` comes through it all shining. Ok, it`s far too arty in places, there isn`t enough dialogue and the story line would be easier to locate if it were locked in a tea chest and dropped in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, but it just about overcomes all of that.

This is helped greatly by the performances which its two stars give. Hannah is excellent as the quiet reclusive Scot, and Hill matches him every inch of the way as the Northern `scaffolder` with an untold history. Although cleverly dodging the clichéd pitfalls which manage to present themselves, with sentimentality boiling throughout, you might think that this were something of a predictable movie. Not so. At every point, expectations are confounded and, with the help of a rather witty script (in which all the best lines are thrown Hill`s way); it manages to keep fresh throughout.

In fact, when Harry tells Flint that they simply don`t have any food for pudding and Flint replies with "Fancy some cock?" (and so beginning the next stage of their relationship), it is such a glorious moment that you almost forget how crude the line is. It is this naked truth, running through the entire picture, that makes it feel alive and `off centre` in the most charming of ways.

Overall, if you can steer past the more pretentious sensibilities which line the roads, and get onto the motorway, you`ll find yourself plesantly satisfied in Madagascar by tea time. Just make sure that you take your own dessert.