ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

DIRECTOR Shane Meadows is currently one of the finest directors working in British cinema. He won a BAFTA earlier this year for This Is England and now follows that triumph with Somers Town, a heartwarming little bundle of joy filmed in lyrical black and white. It is slight and short but gives more pleasure than many a film running twice as long.

Thomas Turgoose, the boy wonder from This Is England, stars as Tommo. A young runaway from Nottingham, Tommo arrives in London and is soon robbed, beaten and left to his own devices. If he is a modern day Oliver Twist then the scene is set for a very gritty heartbreaker.

Instead, Meadows and screenwriter Paul Fraser confound those expectations by choosing to tell a much more life-affirming tale of the kindness of strangers and the unlikeliest of friendships.

The irrepressible Tommo soon befriends Marek (Piotr Jagiello), the son of a Polish builder employed at King’s Cross. The two lonely souls have little in common but find common ground in their attraction to waitress Maria (Elisa Lasowski) and their curiosity about the world around them.

Somers Town combines the charm of a French nouvelle vague classic with the social realism of 1960s British classics like Saturday Night And Sunday Morning or Cathy Come Home. It is acutely observed and often very funny, but best of all is the warm generosity of its spirit and Meadows’ belief in the innate decency of humankind. It is the kind of tonic guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and even a tear to your eyes.

Nationwide release

Director: Shane Meadows
Cast: Thomas Turgoose, Kate Dickie, Piotr Jagiello, Ireneusz Czop, Perry Benson, Elisa Lasowski.
Screenwriter: Paul Fraser
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 71mins
Country: UK
Year: 2008