Filmmaker Jamie Thraves made his debut feature ‘The Low Down’ in 2000. It starred Aiden Gillen (The Wire, Queer as Folk) and was rendered by The Observer to be amongst the “neglected masterpieces” of film history in its rundown of 50 Lost Movie Classics.
Now Thraves and Gillen are reunited in Treacle Jr., a low budget (the film only cost £30k to make, and Thraves remortgaged his home) and low key British film that manages to shock, move and amuse. It’s a blend of subtle observational comedy and powerful, uncompromising drama.
Tom (Tom Fisher) is a middle class architect living in Birmingham with his wife and baby son, and for reasons undeclared, decides to secretly abandon his life one morning. He boards a train to London, throws his phone into a lake, sleeps rough and spends solitary time wandering through parks. Following injuries from an encounter with a mob of violent youths, he meets Aiden (Gillen), an eccentric and erratic chatterbox with learning difficulties and a genial, child-like nature. Aiden is so oblivious to Tom’s clear disinterest and reluctance to talk that Tom fails to escape his clutches and eventually a friendship of sorts develops.
The strangeness of the friendship and the severe differences between the two characters tests the capacity for strangers to care for one another. Aiden and Tom also juxtapose different ways of approaching the world. Aiden has nothing and nobody. He lives in a boxy flat with an abusive pseudo ‘girlfriend’ named Linda (Riann Steele). He strives, and often fails, to make ends meet by doing odd jobs (such as chopping garden hedges with small scissors) and is frequently physically or verbally attacked by those he attempts to communicate with.
It is sad to endure his misfortunes, but his resilience is touching. Aiden never expresses anger, is always forgiving and believes in the good within people however naïve a view this may be. His relentless optimism has him convinced his one man drum band will lead to fame. Conversely, Tom has a seemingly comfortable home life but is suffering from a destructible sadness. He is affected by Aiden and benefits from their friendship, a communication that manages to be tender hearted without touching on sentimentality. Treacle Jr. represents the daily reality of those that have an urge to abandon their identity and walk out on their lives in a quest for peace and solitude. Thraves uses the uneasy hand-held camera and bleak, gritty South-East London locations to twist the romanticised notion of a new beginning into one that looks eerily and darkly realistic. The strength of Gillen’s performance makes him a challenge to watch and Fisher’s understated performance appropriately compliments the ultimately unknowable character he depicts.
Sarah Jane Holland
