Dark River review: Life’s grim and lawless down on the farm

Charlotte Osullivan23 February 2018

The road to limbo is paved with good intentions. Clio Barnard, a British film-maker here tackling issues of incest, misogyny and rural poverty, has made a melodrama that unfolds like an artsy episode of Emmerdale. It has fine performances and nifty singing. But as a whole it’s as dark as a box of Milk Tray.

Prodigal daughter Alice (Ruth Wilson, pouty) wants to claim her father’s decaying North Yorkshire property, to the horror of her stay-at-home brother Joe (Mark Stanley). The way Alice flinches at a co-worker’s touch, plus a flashback involving her widower father (Sean Bean, wasted), make it clear he abused her as a teen.

For laudable reasons, Barnard doesn’t want to use incest as a titillating narrative “twist”, but there are few other surprises. Alice (whether trying to get the farm back on its feet or looking balefully at her family home) is an open book.

Meanwhile, a property developer, keen to exploit the conflict between the siblings, all but has the words “I am a human vulture” tattooed on his forehead. And when emotional storm clouds gather we get thunder and lightning.

Barnard has talent, as you’ll know if you’ve seen The Arbor (a slyly devastating docu-drama about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar), or The Selfish Giant (a lo-fi tragedy about two kids). Inter-family racism, babies left to die of neglect, jealousy unbound — Barnard’s first two films ask us to care about people whose ability to care has been warped. Dark River is less generous. A slain innocent here is treated like a slab of meat.

Worse, The Selfish Giant’s only weak link (a contrived act of atonement involving a man pleading guilty to a crime he didn’t commit) is recycled. This time the law’s blindness to facts is hard to bear.
Thank goodness for Game of Thrones’ Stanley, whose Joe is an engaging wreck. His thick curls and ruined smile make you think of a cemetery cherub.

As for PJ Harvey’s rendition of folk song An Acre of Land, you’ll be murmuring it for weeks. Though a mess, Dark River is good enough to make you look forward to Barnard’s next project. Carry on, Clio.

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