Red Road
Thu 27 March 2008
Jacqueline Smith, Journalism
Red Road, set in present day Glasgow, portrays a bleak city inhabited by equally bleak people.
Their lives are a grind of monotony - a cycle of work, drugs, partying and violence that is repeated every day. The protagonist, Jackie, is a CCTV operator who spends her working day watching over her patch of Glasgow.
The film begins with some promise, leading the audience on a voyeuristic experience. The timely issues of surveillance and the struggle of urban existence are introduced but neither issue is explored beyond the first tantalising acknowledgement.
The film begins slowly and never really picks up the pace, but it is an intriguing depiction of a contemporary Western city. While the Scottish accents may be a little difficult to understand, the bleakness of working-class life in a large city is easily understood by an Australian audience.
The film has an R rating because of the explicit sexual images in one confronting scene. The graphic, bleak portrayal of this scene does add to the flavour of the film, but could deter some potential viewers.
Intended as a thriller, Red Road is fairly unsuccessful in this genre, but does prove interesting as a drama that takes a look at ‘a slice of life’.
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