A very dark drama, sombre throughout, Wait For Me boasts committed performances that power through the bleakness. Karen Hassan stars as Alicia, a woman who becomes embroiled in a life of crime after moving to England from Ireland. Small-time sneery criminal Max (Neil Bell) has her under control, doling out psychological punishment and forcing her and a band of other coerced women into a life of prostitution and petty crime.
When Alicia meets Sam (Aaron Cobham), a photographer nursing his own long-time demons and also drawn into this grubby underworld, they inspire each other to escape and face the mistakes and consequences of their past. Alicia has a daughter she wants to reconnect with; Sam is looking for some sort of closure and wants to help so they can escape from Max’s clutches, but he comes after them with the help of the brutal Barry (Theo Ogundipe). Ultimately, however, Alicia must face the traumas of her past, her own responsibilities and the people who have turned her firstly into a drug addict, then a prostitute and criminal: her father Ged (a convincing Sean McGinley), Max and herself must all atone.
Wait For Me is not an easy watch, the cast and first-time feature director Farrell going all in on the grit and nastiness of these broken people, but there is a faint glimmer of hope at the film’s conclusion. Farrell’s experience in documentary shines through in his realistic handling of scenes and most of the performances, especially Hassan and McGinley, manage to paper over some suspect plotting and character shifts.
Edited in Wales by Sion Roberts and shot with a grimy lens by Mike Staniforth, Bernard O’Toole’s script has some great exchanges, particularly an opening chat between Hassan and McGinley and doesn’t shirk from unsettling detail. A sprinkling of humour, however dark, could have leavened the tone, and Max’s sneering character sometimes feels one-note – but Wait For Me is still a worthy, if grim, glimpse of small-scale, commonplace criminality, its effect on one woman and her struggle for redemption.
Dir: Keith Farrell (15, 95 mins)
Out now in cinemas
words KEIRON SELF
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