Treacle Jr. Released 26 August 2011 Director Jamie Thraves Starring Aidan Gillen, Tom Fisher, Riann Steele Writer(s) Jamie Thraves Producer(s) Rob Small, Jamie Thraves Origin United Kingdom Running Time 85 minutes Genre Drama Rating

75

Bittersweet.

After being touted as the next big thing after 2000's The Low Down, writer and director Jamie Thraves decided to take a break. Years of hard graft had brought the talented British filmmaker to this point and now, as ill-timed as career breaks may by necessity be, he came to a grinding halt. Known to many for his achingly beautiful video for Radiohead's 'Just', Thraves was always a toiling short-film maker at heart who sometimes yearned to take his craft to longer lengths. Thus with the new millennium came The Low Down-a "neglected masterpiece" as dubbed by The Observer which coupled Thraves for the first time with his friend and sometime-muse Irish actor Aidan Gillen. Then nothing. Well, not nothing exactly. There were those countless awards for videos he directed for Coldplay, Razorlight, Death Cab for Cutie and Damien Rice to name just a few. As for feature-length films though, there was a marked drought. Finally, 2009 saw the release of The Cry of the Owl-a so-so story of a troubled relationship in a small town that failed to create much of a stir when it was released. And now comes Treacle Jr. A poignant, beautifully told story of an unlikely friendship between Tom (Tom Fisher), a middle-class married father-of-one and Aidan (Aidan Gillen), a down-and-out chirpy Irishman.

It is well documented the things that people do and can do when struggling to bear the weight of responsibility. It is this theme, one among many, that Thraves explores in Treacle Jr. Tom, seemingly a happy husband and father, takes a walk one day and ends up fleeing south from Birmingham to London, ripping his bank cards and supermarket loyalty plastics along the way. After a harrowing experience on the mean streets of South London, Tom winds up in A&E where he is inexplicably the subject of a barrage of small-talk from a loud and excitable Irish bum. Despite Tom's evasive tactics, an unlikely friendship develops between the two. Aidan teaches Tom the oftentimes hilarious ways he has conjured up to make money, including how he hires out his cat, Treacle, to catch mice in dingy cafes. However, beneath his carefree and happy veneer Aidan has problems-not least his abusive partner Linda (Riann Steele) and Tom quickly realises that after running from his problems up North, he has simply substituted them for more down South.

Firstly it should be mentioned that Thraves borrowed, begged and eventually remortgaged his own home to pay for Treacle Jr. It was therefore very much a labour of love for Thraves that saw him reunited with Gillen. While the small budget effect of the film may irk some, the jerky handycam action complements and reinforces the more realistic, mundane aspects of the story. Fisher is perfectly adequate as the 'lost' Tom but his performance pales in comparison to Gillen, whose performance as the child-like Aidan steals every scene and has so-far made him the worthy recipient of the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Milan International Film Festival. Both the locations and score of Treacle Jr. are used beautifully-never upstaging or downplaying the drama but always a worthy accompaniment. A sweet, funny and ultimately heartbreaking film, Treacle Jr. is a memorable treat.

- Louisa McElwee