OPENS MAY 7, CERT 15, 93 MINS
When northern nice guy Eddie (John Lynch) and his wife are seen having sex by young daughter Katie (Lauren Cook), Eddie is totally forthcoming when answering her questions. But his explanation, along with his role as a “rough old granny” in harmless bath-time games, is passed on at school, triggering a damaging social services investigation. Soon, Eddie’s helplessness as inflexible state mechanisms plough into his life, compounded with his innate immaturity, threaten to tear the family apart.
Lynch’s brooding performance makes it hard to immediately find sympathy for Eddie, but this is balanced by the profound love he obviously has for his children. Director Jim Doyle creates a grim, all-too-believable movie here, and as the story builds, we find Eddie ostracised by co-workers and neighbours, irrespective of the social services’ eventual verdict. Sadly, the Alfie-like to-camera asides (retained from the story’s origins on the stage) and attempts at Britcom jauntiness undermine the seriousness at this story’s core.