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A Kind of Hush
UK 1998
Reviewed by Nick Thomas
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Outside Kings Cross station in London, rent boy Simon picks up a punter, who is then beaten and robbed by Simon's mates, Mick, Tony, Wivva, Fish and Stu. They return to their favourite café to count their loot. The gang have in common a history of sexual abuse, and see themselves as avengers, out to get even with their exploiters. After beating up another john in a urinal, they seek out and attack Merriman, Tony's former foster father. Unlike the other members of the gang, Stu works as a trainee for the kind-hearted Chef and his wife Beryl, and is trying to build a relationship with waitress Kathleen. Chef's sudden illness prompts Stu to find his own sister Jen, who was also a victim of their abusive father, and his collaborator Trewin, a wealthy pimp who procures boys. Stu and the gang go to Trewin's house in search of material to blackmail Trewin with. But when Trewin takes Jen's daughter Kirsty hostage to recover the evidence, Stu's concern is for her welfare. When the handover is botched, Fish attempts to climb onto Trewin's moving vehicle and is killed when it crashes. Stu agrees to a reunion with his father, now implicated along with Trewin, but beats him savagely before urinating on him. The friends bury Fish at sea.
Review
The screenplay of A Kind of Hush is based on Richard Johnson's autobiographical novel Getting Even, a title which perhaps better reflects the film's potential pleasures. But indebtedness to a real-life account of the sexually abused taking late and indiscriminate revenge prevents the narrative from engineering the kind of dramatic pay-off that makes the finale Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), for example, so thrilling. Our heroes' brand of vigilante 'justice' is meted out inconsistently - hapless punters are dealt with as viciously as serial abusers. That may be an accurate depiction of victims' anger, but it tends to dissipate sympathy and deflect the narrative revenge arc the film appears to be taking.
Writer-director Stirner coaxes notable performances from a team of virtual unknowns. Making his debut behind the camera after a career as a stage director and as an actor in theatre and film (notably in Overlord), Stirner has used improvisational exercises to create a credible bond between the young performers. Harley Smith as Stu is impressive in his attempts to come to terms with his past and to forge a 'normal' future for himself. There are strong performances also from Paul Williams as the aggressive Mick; Nathan Constance as the young man facing his abusive foster father; and Mike Fibbens (a former Olympic swimmer) as Fish - a wordless physical presence whose final sacrifice leads to a kind of closure for both victims and abusers. Veteran actor Roy Hudd plays a likable father figure to the wayward Stu, and stands as one of the few trustworthy adults in this world otherwise populated by devious abusers.
The Kings Cross depicted here is more prosaic than the Dante-like visions in Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa: here net-curtained suburbs contain as many horrors as notorious inner-city haunts. The difficult flashbacks of abuse resonate not through visual metaphors but through the soundtrack, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's intense neo-medieval meditations adding a sometimes overbearing sense of dread. The film's title, by stark contrast, comes from the syrupy ballad first made famous by Herman's Hermits in 1967. It presumably refers to the conspiratorial hush among abusees. While the National Lottery may not yet have been the saviour of British cinema it promised to be, it has at least supported this brave film, even if it is likely to get only a modest return on its investment.
Credits
- Producer
- Roger Randall-Cutler
- Screenplay
- Brian Stirner
- Based on the novel Getting Even by
- Richard Johnson
- Director of Photography
- Jacek Petrycki
- Editor
- David Martin
- Production Designer
- Mark Stevenson
- Music
- Arvo Pärt
- ©A Kind of Hush Limited
- Production Companies
- A First Film Company production with the participation of British Screen in association with the Arts Council of England
- Developed with the support of Tim White Film Productions Ltd
- Developed with the assistance of British Screen Finance Limited
- Supported by The National Lottery through the Arts Council of England
- Executive Producer
- Richard Brindle
- Line Producer
- Paul Cowan
- Development Executives
- Sophie Bankes
- Rob Cheek
- Production Co-ordinator
- Liz Watkins
- Production Manager
- Chris Wheeldon
- Location Manager
- Christian McWilliams
- Post-production Supervisor
- Stephen Law
- Assistant Directors
- Chris Creagh Coen
- Barrie McCulloch
- Daniel Toland
- Script Supervisor
- Cathy Doubleday
- Casting
- Ros Hubbard
- John Hubbard
- Underwater Director of Photography
- Michel Gemmell
- Camera Operators
- Brian Harris
- Underwater:
- Peter Ditch
- Steadicam Operator
- Alexander Sahla
- Digital Film Effects
- Cinesite (Europe) Ltd
- Model Maker
- Jessie Walker Stewart
- Art Director
- Peter Robinson
- Storyboard Artist
- Jim Cornish
- Costume Designer
- Verity Hawkes
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Estelle Butler
- Make-up/Hair Design
- Sue Parkinson
- Make-up Artists
- Christine Greenwood
- Additional:
- Lizzie Georgiou
- Ivanna Primorac
- Stephanie O'Rourke
- Suzan Broad
- Jutta Russell
- Caroline Martini
- Oral Prosthetics
- Chris Lyons
- Chris Boxall
- Titles
- Cine Image
- Music Performed by
- The Tallinn Chamber Orchestra
- Music Conductor
- Tönu Kaljuste
- Music Supervisor
- Frazer Kennedy
- Soundtrack
- "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" by Arvo Pärt, performed by Stuttgarter Kammer Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies; "Untitled for Saxophone and Keyboard" by Arvo Pärt; performed by Jan Garbarek (tenor sax) Arvo Pärt (keyboards); "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)" by Les Reed, Geoff Stephens, performed by Radiator; "Who Is Your God", "Generator", "I Am" by Chris Rose, Jack Cooke, Janne Jarvis, performed by Radiator; "Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the Ole Oak Tree" by Irwin Levine, L. Russell Brown; "Congratulations" by Bill Martin, Phil Coulter; "She Moved thro' the Fair" by Colum Padraic, traditional arrangement by Hughes Herbert
- Sound Mixer
- Jim Greenhorn
- Re-recording Mixer
- Clive Pendry
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Nick Adams
- Dialogue Editor
- Gordon Brown
- Effects Editor
- Sam Southwick
- Foley
- Artists:
- Jason Swanscott
- Dianne Greaves
- Mixer:
- Ted Swanscott
- Editors:
- Paul Wrightson
- Jay Coquillon
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Jim Dowdall
- Tom Delmar
- Colin Skeaping
- Animal Trainers
- Animals Okay
- Cast
- Harley Smith
- Stu
- Marcella Plunkett
- Kathleen
- Nathan Constance
- Tony
- Ben Roberts
- Simon
- Paul Williams
- Mick
- Peter Saunders
- Wivva
- Mike Fibbens
- Fish
- Roy Hudd
- Chef
- Jeanie Drynan
- Beryl
- Timothy Barlow
- Max
- Tony Tang
- George
- Kim Phuong
- Sue-Lin
- Lynne Verrall
- Babs
- Vernon Nurse
- washer-up
- Hayley Danbury
- Jen
- Phil Nice
- Dad
- Tabitha Walton Lane
- Kirsty
- Mark Northover
- Uncle Chris
- Paul Hayley
- Peter Trewin
- Séon Rogers
- Sandy
- Bay White
- Mrs Trewin
- Jack Chissick
- Mr Merriman
- Gabrielle Hamilton
- Gran
- Johanna Kirby
- Rita
- Rupert Farley
- soldier
- Gwyneth Powell
- Mrs P
- Kathie Whiteley
- nurse
- Diveen Henry
- solicitor
- Peter Allcorn
- man at station
- Barrie Jaimeson
- man in loo
- Anthony Etherton
- man on train
- Andrew Cuthbert
- man at fair
- Trio
- Maisie, the dog
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Metrodome Distribution Ltd
- 8,581 feet
- 95 minutes 21 seconds
- Dolby digital
- Colour by
- Technicolor