Happy New Year, Colin Burstead

I have to admit being a little agnostic towards Ben Wheatley's films. Of the ones I've seen, only High-Rise impressed me. Down Terrace wasn't great, Free Fire was hit and miss and Kill List left me cold (I'm yet to get to Sightseers and A Field in England). So, would a Luna preview of his new film, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead pull one back? Indeed. Back of the net! 3-2! He must have a foot like a traction engine!

While I wouldn't say this is a thunderbastard, it's a very solid piece of work that lets us (anyone not lower middle class English) into the lives of these people for a day. The set-up is that Colin has organised a party at a stately home for his mum, who has been poorly. Extended family and friends are invited - the complication being brother, David, who has been invited secretly, is a bit of a twat and not roundly popular with anyone, reasons for which are pared backed as the film progresses.

The cast is probably the main draw here, with great turns from the likes of Neil Maskell as Colin, Sam Riley as David, Hayley Squires as sister, Gini, Charles Dance as uncle Bertie, Doon Mackichan as mum, Sandy and Bill Paterson as dad, Gordon. According to the credits, much of the cast added impromptu dialogue to their scenes and the whole film feels pretty organically put together. This works most of the time, only occasionally leading to a sense of 'over-lingering'. If anything, there are too many characters in this ensemble - some people don't have much to do, some are only seen in the final credit sequence (though they may have been crew rather than cast).

I've been trying to unravel exactly what Wheatley is proposing with this film but only came up with a fairly dicey moral aphorism - "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". Colin is the one who wants to do something nice for his family and ends up getting royally shafted for it. This seems very much a post-Brexit film, where people's petty squabbling and selfishness bubble to the surface. Everyone's so self-obsessed that a guy like Colin, sensible and altruistic, doesn't stand a chance. The film ends with the whole family having a right old knees up on the dance floor - minus Colin, wife Val and daughter Fran. Their absence makes it hard to go along with the jollity. Happy new year? As Colin screams to the sea, "Fuuuck theeem!"

See also:

Similar family gathering scenarios in Thomas Vinterberg's Festen (1998) and a smaller, more hopeful take on it with Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies (1996).