Over the last few years, we have had a few very bleak English rural dramas, such as The Goob in 2015. I have found all of them underwhelming but Hope Dickson Leach’s The Levelling bucks that trend.
Ellie Kendrick is Clover, a young trainee vet, who returns to her family farm after the sudden death of her brother. Her father, Aubrey (David Troughton) insists it was an accident, but the police advise Clover that it was suicide. In the days leading up to the funeral, tensions between Aubrey and Clover simmer as she tries to understand her brother’s actions. As a backdrop to this she also finds out that the farm is failing due to mismanagement and a TB outbreak.
This is pretty grim stuff but Leach’s believable script, free of flights-of-fancy that have plagued similar dramas recently, and a superb central performance from Kendrick make it compulsive viewing. Long-standing issues start to be revealed but there are no big twists or cathartic moments, and the problems of the family seem all too real. It never becomes totally clear if Clover hated being sent to boarding school, or if her father insisted that she stay away from the farm, but it is certain that Aubrey must have been a difficult man to endure.
Despite all their unresolved differences, there is still a tenderness between the two, as shown towards the end of the film, when Clover, believing that her father might be in danger starts to refer to him as Dad, rather than Aubrey, for the first time in the film.
In cinemas on a limited release and available on demand, The Levelling is set to be one of the best British films of the year, and is worth seeking out.
Rating: 8 out of 10