Director: Mat Whitecross
Cast: Ray Winstone, Jim Sturgess, Lesley Manville, Jodie Whittaker, Luke Evans.
Runtime: 97 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: TBD
Jamie (Jim Sturgess), after many months of searching, finally tracks down his estranged father (Ray Winstone), and together they embark on a dangerous road trip. However, with Frank becoming more unstable and Jamie’s motives unclear, the journey gradually unravels their dark and sinister pasts.
ASHES is a weird mix; part kitchen sink drama and part thriller. The film wants you to speculate about James’ motives for saving Frank and Frank’s connection to his wife, Cathy, but in all honesty there’s a good chance you’ll have it figured out by the halfway point. That might detract overall from the film’s quality, but there’s little detracting from a good, and very different performance from Ray Winstone.
Having built a reputation as playing no nonsense hard men, it’s eye-opening to see him deliver a softer performace as Frank, an Alzheimer’s patient who’s really starting to lose his way: one minute he’s a drooling, helpless mess and the next as confusion consumes him, he becomes feral and violent. The other main player in the film, Jim Sturgess tries his best to keep up, but James is not a very sympathetic character and Sturgess is unable to elevate the role beyond that.
The problems of the film are the problems the characters encounter. They can’t have a smooth ride home, but most of the issues they encounter boil down to the fact that James is a moron, which is troublesome. It seems as if he keeps forgetting that Frank has Alzheimer’s and continuosly decides to leave him alone and out of sight again and again, or even worse, decides it would be perfectly okay to leave Frank behind the wheel of a car while he takes a nap in the passenger’s seat. It’s not something a normal, logical person would ever do and it drags the supposed realism by the wayside.
Overall, this film is good enough to see once thanks to Ray Winstone’s performance. However the script lacks a sense of realism, both in dialogue and action, the drama part works but the so-called thriller aspect of the film falls woefully short. The ending lacks any real emotional punch, and despite their very best efforts, it just isn’t as surprising as the filmmakers want it to be.
ASHES is released on DVD on the 28th January 2013
