Brakes

Imagine Love Actually filmed from the dark side.

Feel good? Been better.

This is a homegrown improvised feelbad movie that starts at the end and ends at the start.

In Part Two, which opens proceedings, an ensemble cast of known and unknowns go through the ritual of breaking up. There is much screaming and shouting and crying from the ladies and self justification from the men, entangled, as they are, in lies, sexual boredom and nothing left to lose.

Part One, which fills the final third, shows the shy intros, the pick up follow throughs, the soon-to-be doomed couples at their almost innocent beginnings where connections appear arbitrary, not dependent upon charm or humour.

What the film says is that there's no magic in the mating game. It's all about timing. Guys think about sex every two minutes, or is it every two seconds? Girls think about love which is a work in progress. Sex may open the door but is not the engine that drives the train.

What does Brakes mean? Slowing the speed of an emotional downhill? Stopping the flow of banal small talk? Switching off romance?

This has a back-of-the-envelope scenario. A handful of actors in a pub, maybe, discuss their divorces and messy relationships.

"Hey! Let's make a movie."

"Why?"

"Because we can."

"What about the script?"

"We'll make it up."

"Performers?"

"You're looking at them."

This may not have happened. Yet this is how Brakes comes across. Cynical and homemade.

The villain is sex, The hero is hope. Yet there is one rule in feelbad movies. Heroes never win.