This Is Not a Love Song Movie Review

Color me surprised. This little low-budget video production out of the UK has a meaningless title (taken from a PiL song) and questionable pedigree, and it looks like an experiment shot by a few lads on a long weekend. Shock then that it's actually a quite gripping, heartbreaking, and very watchable movie.

The story follows Heaton (Kenneth Glenaan) as he steals a car to pick up his pal Spike (Michael Colgan) after his release from prison. As they leave and head back to town, the car runs out of gas, so they hike to a farm to borrow some. Things go badly here, culminating in a shotgun blast that takes the life of an innocent. Heaton and Spike decide to run for it, hoping to make it back across the hills of Yorkshire to lose themselves in the big city. What they aren't counting on is a vigilante mob that comes after them, led by a quiet and ruthless hunter (David Bradley), who slowly tightens the noose on them as the boys haplessly meander across the countryside in a panic.

The slow build-up and sense of aimlessness and growing panic gives the film that Blair Witch feeling (aggravated by the use of video instead of film), and I mean that in a good way. The relationship between the two boys is what gives the movie its soul: Heaton is the one with a head on his shoulders, Spike is the one prone to flying off the handle but also likely to go to outrageous lengths to make a joke (abandoning Heaton while stuck in a bog in one case) despite the dire circumstances. Wondering how this unlikely pair became friends, why Spike was in prison, and other quirky backstory points that are never addressed enriches the experience all the more.

Director Bille Eltringham takes a lot of risks (as well she should) with camerawork and storytelling, and most of them pay off. This is a film that merits repeat viewing and will undoubtedly cause fitful sleep.