Day 28 - Kicks (2009)

Today finds me looking at a low-budget, arthouse Britflick - ask me why, and I'll tell you it's because it was one of only a couple of colour films available on iPlayer. I don't have anything against black and white, but I just don't have the knowledge base to be able to provide any sort of coherent frame of reference.

Unfortunately, skimming the IMDB reviews for Kicks, I'm not sure I'll be able to do this one justice, either - it seems to be the sort of film that invites serious, in-depth critique from a bunch of serious, in-depth people, not the sort of people who'd, say, be typing abstractedly at 5.55am with their minds firmly and sulkily on Marvel's latest casting announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, we should not be giving Benedict Cumberbatch acting work because this will only encourage him to act, and then where shall we be? Up to our eyeballs in the twentysomething equivalent of the Directioners, that's where. 

...You get my point, I'm sure. Existing reviews of Kicks tend towards the intelligent and knowledgeable, and at this time of morning I don't think I can necessarily offer either. Still, college try, and all that.

Kicks is Lindy Heymann's second feature, and it tells the story of two very different teenage girls with one shared obsession. Nicole (Kerrie Hayes) is from a deprived background; with mostly-absent parents and little in the way of prospects, she seeks solace by dreaming of the players of her local Liverpool football club. Jasmine (Nichola Burley), meanwhile, slightly older and more sophisticated, longs for the glamorous lifestyle of the WAGs - the wives and girlfriends of the millionaire footballers, with their endless cycle of shopping and parties and beauty treatments. 

The pair of them bond whilst waiting for player Lee Cassidy to emerge from a training session. Their friendship develops in scenes reminiscent of Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, with Jasmine offering Nicole a glimpse into another world and making it seem almost attainable. Nicole, meanwhile, provides a hideout for them in the form of a static caravan abandoned by her older brother, a serving soldier.

Together, they pursue Cassidy, desperate for any chance of contact with their idol. When chance throws him into their laps, however, what will they do?

The good

This is a beautiful piece of filmmaking that shows Liverpool at its moody best - bleak and dreamlike at once. Long, slow shots of the city seem to turn it into the girls' entire universe. It's a claustrophobic world, though, and the persistently dim lighting acts as a visual manifestation of the protagonists' aching yearning for something brighter.  

The soundtrack, too, is pure Liverpool, coming from locals Ladytron. Shimmeringly sinister and suffocatingly oppressive, it forms the film's pounding heartbeat, at times fading almost into nothing before slipping insidiously forth to dominate Kicks' numerous nightclub scenes. Importantly, music is mostly used organically here; while it does cover a couple of montages, I don't recall the it being particularly audible at any other point when it wouldn't have been playing anyway. 

Performances are mostly good, with particular credit to Kerrie Hayes - her Nicole is a complex character, but never an incomprehensible one. In the slightly less sympathetic role of Jasmine, Nichola Burley offers solid support. As Lee Cassidy, Jamie Doyle is never entirely convincing, but then, his role is little more than an extended cameo - his function is the same of that of any pop culture idol, a mood board onto which the fans can pin their own fantasies and insecurities.

The bad

What we clearly have here, then, is a fantastic character piece. Does it stand up to closer scrutiny, though? Unfortunately, I'm inclined to say not. Maybe I've watched too much multiplex fodder lately, but I found myself frustrated with Kicks' tonal inconsistencies - it just couldn't decide which damned genre box it wanted to tick. As a thriller, the pacing is simply too slow, while it lets itself down as a drama with a slightly histrionic last act.

The problem is that there's at least three or four interesting stories here, but the film can't decide which it wants to tell and so has a stab at all of them at once. Is it a coming of age drama? Is it a cautionary tale about our obsession with celebrity culture? Is it Kes, or Hard Candy? I'm not suggesting that every film has to fit neatly into its own genre box, but the storytelling here is deeply muddled and not in a deliberate, bait-and-switch sort of way. I genuinely couldn't work out what Heymann was trying to say, leaving me with a final feeling of nagging dissatisfaction.

The verdict

I'm honestly not sure about this one. I started watching hoping for either an interesting drama or a gripping thriller, and ended up feeling as though I'd received neither. My overriding instinct is that this will be one to come back to once Kerrie Hayes has made it big; on the strength of her performance here, I'm sure she will.