While it's not the first thing that she ever did, Second Coming is a theatrical feature debut from writer-director Debbie Tucker Green that shows her to be, quite rightly, confident in her ability to translate her material on to the screen. She gets a hand from a great cast, but there are lots of choices made here that come directly from the person in charge behind the camera.
Nadine Marshall plays Jackie, AKA 'Jax', a woman who discovers that she is pregnant. That should come as good news to herself and her partner, Mark (Idris Elba), except for the fact that the two of them have not been intimate for some time. They don't seem to be at the end of the lifespan of their relationship, but there's something that keeps coming between them, even if it's just a curtain made up of their own worries and overthinking. Meanwhile, their son, JJ (Kai Francis Lewis), tries to get through his school days by ignoring some of the more problematic people around him, both students and teachers. He is happier when thinking of birds, and has a knack for befriending them, even if he can't necessarily heal any that are wounded. Can the family unit survive the revelation of the pregnancy, and will Jax be able to convince people that she isn't losing her mind as she becomes more and more convinced that it's a bit of a modern miracle?
Both Marshall and Elba are fantastic in this, both feeling like very real individuals who are trying to stay content and loving in their own little bubble after spending so many hours of each day being worn down by the struggles and weight of the everyday outside world. I'm not very familiar with Marshall, sadly, but I see now that she has quite an extensive filmography I can explore, and I look forward to doing just that. Elba IS someone I am familiar with, but he's rarely given roles that feel they are quite right for his considerable talent and charm. This still leaves him slightly underserved, but only slightly, but it also reminds you of how fantastic he can be with material that is grounded and not preoccupied with showing him off as a blockbuster star. Young Lewis is a brilliant third side of this triangle at the heart of the film, but I also have to mention the flawless supporting turns from Sharlene Whyte (a friend/colleague/confidant), Seroca Davis (Jax's sister), and Nicola Walker (a counselor who is seemingly unable to offer much help to Jax).
Green is happy to leave viewers without any easy answers, filling her movie with moments of magical realism that may or may not be experienced by the characters involved. Her impressive theatre background feeds in to her cinematic work. Many sequences are put on the shoulders of the characters talking to one another, but there's always the chance that something unnatural will suddenly interrupt a scene, and both the main dialogue and the "background noise" are made sharper by the authenticity and honesty underpinning them. These are recognisable people going through recognisable situations, despite the elements that come along to probe and push against the thin barrier separating the real and the unreal.
Not an easy watch, even if (especially if?) you just end up picking it to get a bit of Elba in your day, Second Coming is a strange and delicate exploration of relationships, the weight of every decision we make, and mental health. It weaves a spell that viewers won't even be fully aware of until the end credits have rolled and you're left to think over every implication, and what your own preferred interpretation of events says about . . . well, I'll leave you to decide that.
8/10
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That's free almost everywhere so I should add it to my list on one of them. I love Idris Elba; it's too bad he never got anything in the big superhero franchises except a small part in the Thor movies. As he says in Knuckles, "Big mistake. Huge." Of course some of that might be on him if he doesn't want to get involved with that kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteHe was in the second movie incarnation of the Suicide Squad, but I am not sure he wants anyone to remember that :)
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