Monday night Kieran and I took ourselves off to see the latest Secret Screening at our local Cineworld. I'd played along with some of the clues the other cinemas had put up to help guess the movie, and I agreed with some of the comments on social media that it was likely going to be Blue Beetle or perhaps even A Haunting in Venice. We were all wrong though. It was in fact the BBC/BFI film Scrapper.
Being a BFI movie, you always know it's going to get you in the feels somewhere along the line. BFI films are rarely high budget fantasy, and almost always relate to very human drama until you cry kind of movies. This of course was no exception.
In Scrapper, we follow 12 year old Georgie as she adapts from living on her own and trying to stay afloat following the passing of her mum, to getting used to her absent father being back on the scene to take care of her.
Of course this man, Jason, is a complete stranger to her. He just clambers over her garden fence, introduces himself, and lets himself into the house she has tried so hard to keep exactly like when her mum was around, even down to the sofa cushion placements. She resents this man trying to take the role of parent, as if he's trying to replace her beloved mother, but we follow the journey as he grows to be a parent and she passes through the stages of grief enough to let him.
This movie is ultimately about child grief, or grief in general. The scene where we finally are allowed to see in Georgie's secret room, what looks to be her mum's room, through Jason's eyes tugged at the heart strings. We realise in that moment that this tower of pointless junk she's been working on every night isn't something beautiful after all, it's tragic. Despite being too old to believe in her mum's promise of going to heaven when she passes, the child in Georgie has held onto this so tightly through her grief that she's building a tower to climb to reach her mum. The reaction on Jason's face when it clicks is perfect, this was the moment he realised Georgie was truly not okay and that she needed him. A tower to heaven, something only a child could think up, but seeing Georgie start and plan to make it happen was enough.
I swear Harris Dickinson is everywhere and the man has so much range. From vaguely posh and snobby Richard Attenborough in See How They Run, to bad boy and genuine horrible piece of work but ultimate murder victim in Where the Crawdads Sing, now deadbeat dad who's trying? Every character is completely different and it's refreshing. You see a lot of actors now who are basically just playing themselves in each role, Dickinson seems to thrive at the challenge of being someone different and believable and I look forward to seeing what he does next.
Hats off to Lola Campbell who plays Georgie. She was the perfect mix of gobby and grieving to pull this film off. I was impressed at how skilled she was at such a young age, I felt for her more than once. She pulled off the ultimate confidence of a 12 year old while simultaneously wearing her vulnerability on her sleeve without even realising it. I notice she wore a hearing aid and whether or not that is the case in real life is irrelevant, no attention was drawn to it during the movie and that is exactly how it should be. I'm pleased these sorts of steps are being taken in the film industry now and I dont want to say more on the topic because it had no relevance to the film.
I liked how normal this movie was despite being a little bit unconventional. Georgie is still trying to live a normal life (while seemingly trying to ignore the fact her mum is gone until her quiet moments). She has her friend Ali around all the time, he's her rock. She is a bit of a trouble maker stealing bikes for money, but as we know why this is we give her a break, and we see her navigate her summer holidays while also trying to avoid bonding with her dad. We see Jason initially through her eyes, we are lead to believe he's on the run from something and that is why he has returned. Georgie goes through his phone for evidence, finds a bullet in his pocket, asks questions about his life which he skillfully avoids answering. We start to believe, like she does, that Jason is bad news. The life in Ibiza is a cover up and something is off about him. As the film goes on the tone shifts. When Georgie starts to warm to her father we start to see snippets of him we didnt notice before. All the weird behaviours and the bullet start to make sense and it turns out he's just a normal guy who had a kid too young and is back to make amends following a heartbreaking plea from Georgie's mum. We end up rooting for him and Georgie to be a family.
The switch in perspectives is skillful and it is what I love about BFI movies. You never realise just how clever they are. We see things tinted by Georgie and Jason depending on the scene, just something as simple as the tooth fairy scene where we see Jason start showing his unconditional love for his daughter and his shock at her reaction. Compare this to Georgie when she's looking for her phone or when she's sneaking out at night. The world seems cold, scary. This is when we remember she's just a kid. Clever, clever stuff.
Overall then I give Scrapper a 7/10. It was heartfelt, emotional, and really good writing. Would I have chosen to watch it? Probably not. But I'm glad I stuck around. Sometimes it isn't the movies you think you need, but the ones that take you by surprise that teach you the important things. This one was family and navigating grief, something we will all have to do one day. I think this is a good film to gently help the process.
Have you seen Scrapper? Comment on my socials what you thought!
Comments
Post a Comment