10 April 2012
Paul Andrew Williams, judged most promising British newcomer at the Standard’s film awards in 2006 for London to Brighton, didn’t exactly confirm his promise with The Cottage. His third film is better but still can’t compete on level terms with his first.
A suburban couple are invaded, robbed and tied up by teenage thugs. The violence escalates when the husband (Tom Butcher) breaks free — but the moral of Williams’s piece seems to be that, when the middle-class are discomforted, they are capable of worse than those who threaten them.
Good playing and powerful film-making make Cherry Tree Lane distinctive. But its concept is thin and you leave feeling you have seen it all before, notably from Michael Haneke.
Cherry Tree Lane
Cert: 18
