Tim (George Mackay) is a good kid, but has encountered tragic misfortune by the loss of his parents and the incarceration of his elder brother Greg (Benjamin Dilloway) leaving him as the sole provider towards himself and younger sibling Helen (Lara Peake). With bailiffs knocking at the door every morning coupled with Helen's increasing school truancy, the film places focus on Tim's existing life as a reluctant stolen goods and drugs pedaller for the local gangster hierarchy.
Increased responsibility for him and his girlfriend Lilly (Charlotte Spencer) welfare, financial ruin, and his own mysterious health deterioration (deliberately hidden from both the audience and concerning characters) leave the inescapable feeling of sobering doom within the events that unfold.
George Mackay gives an utterly unyielding performance despite the various hazardous pitfalls that Tim encounters literally scene by scene. It is his combination of vulnerability and the sheer will to survive from poverty, ill health, and genuine danger of the local gangsters which quite frankly attempt to rescue the narrative.
Beautiful shades of exchanging colours within scenes of dialogue between Tim and the people who he cares for, and the consistent close-up style cinematography are truly something to be admired. This style of social observation also works extremely well during scenes where Tim is immersed within immediate danger, as the camera acts as an accompanying friend both walking and running besides Tim as he faces day-to-day poverty survival.
Yet this truly creative element towards the film also becomes its downfall as it leaves little to no space for the narrative to truly unfold and have an emotional effect towards its conclusive shift in tone. The social realism of Tim's struggles are there to be seen in an enormously up close and honest manner. Yet there is a need for a more insightful understanding towards Tim and the people that he cares about to truly break underneath the films finely detailed surface. It's this balance between surface and substance which makes the drama thematically uneven, which leaves the conclusion less fulfilling and prosperous as Duane Hopkins has intended, ultimately preventing the film from hitting its stride.
Overal, a visceral portrayal of the low-depths of a socio-economic struggle, which leaves an effect of an admirably accurate social observation yet ultimately unengaging narrative.
Bypass was shown at Broadway Cinema on Monday 13 April 2015.
Broadway Cinema website
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