Mike McCahill 

High Tide review – well acted but badly resolved low-key indie drama

The unforced naturalism of this intimate mother-son drama is impressive at first, but the script wanders too far off track
  
  

High Tide film still
Intimate drama in wide open spaces … High Tide. Photograph: Lewis Gillingham Photograph: Lewis Gillingham/PR

This modest Brit indie attempts a small, intimate character drama in wide open spaces: it’s the tale of a Swansea mum (Melanie Walters) who, in the midst of marital difficulties, springs her surly teenage son (Sam Davies) from school for a bonding excursion around the Gower peninsula. Though the change of scenery is welcome, the script resolves this relationship within 45 minutes: the leads all but disappear during a flabbily edited party sequence, before an atrocious twist ending undermines the low-key, unforced naturalism that is the film’s strongest suit. Capably performed, but the emotional punch of last week’s Hinterland is some distance beyond it.

 

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