The press blurb accompanying this film mentions it is set in the “forsaken wastelands of Cheshire’s little seen urban over-spill”. Whilst that particular part of the country may be little seen, I feel I have seen too many dramas in recent years showing the same desperate lives of British youth, whether in small town or rural settings.
Just last year we had ‘The Goob’ and ‘Catch Me Daddy’, both humourless and lacking any characters that I could have any sympathy for. I appreciate not every director can be like Ken Loach who tells similar stories with warmth and a light touch, but once again Helen Walsh the writer / director of ‘The Violators’ delivers a story that completely failed to engage me.
Lauren McQueen plays Shelly, a young woman struggling for money who befriends the much better-off Rachel (Brogan Ellis). The performances are generally competent, but they feel just that – performances, and the film trundles along uninterestingly for its overly long running time.
Rating: 4 out of 10