4.3.2.1.
UK, 2010, 117 minutes, Colour.
Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond, Adam Deacon, Sharika Warren- Markland.
Directed by Noel Clarke, Mark Davis.
Noel Clarke made two sharp films about teen people and adult people in the London suburbs: Kidulthood and Adutlhood. This film is more ambitious but makes less impact.
It starts with a misleading incident, which is later seen to be the opposite of what we thought and, then, before you can say 4.3.2.1., we are whirling around in time (with whirling camera and lots of flash flourishes) as we follow four young women and what they did over a two day period. When you realise that we are going back in time for each of the four, then it makes sense and we see the interconnections and the repeats and make sense of what is happening.
Meanwhile there is a subplot of a diamond robbery in Antwerp and the misadventures of the London connection which sees one of the girls in unwitting possession of the diamonds. She is also having a bad emotional time as her mother is leaving her father who is bogged down in sadness and self-pity. The rich girl of the four flies off to New York to secure a study place as well as to see the charming man on the other end of the computer link-up. Some disasters there as well (despite cameo appearances from Mandy Patinkin and Kevin Smith). A third girl, of mixed race, has a hard time with her family and teams up with her girlfriend. The fourth is an American (Emma Roberts) who works in a supermarket.
Quite a number of coincidences drive the plot forward, but it will depend on whether you like the girls and believe in them whether you are persuaded that this is an effective drama or not.
1. A slice of British life? The focus on the girls? Relationships? Troubles?
2. The London setting, Westminster Bridge, homes, streets, clubs? The musical score?
3. The opening, Shannon on the bridge, preparing to jump, the girls arriving, preventing her jumping?
4. The flashbacks, Friday, the girls, saying goodbyes?
5. The focus on each of the girls: Shannon? At home, trying to talk to friends, ignored, Dillon, the invitation, his kissing Jo, work in the shop? Shannon attacked, again, the rescue, Kelly? Shannon escaping, the potato chips, the diamonds? Shannon and her relationship with her mother, her mother’s dominance, the forced abortion? Drinking, contemplating suicide?
6. Cass, in New York, the audition, the meeting with Brett, the contact online? The true Brett, the naked photographs? The aggression in the attack, the men, the locals and the rescue? The audition, returning home?
7. Kerrys, in the flat, her relationship, girlfriend? The panic room? The party? Kerrys’ taking the car, the accident, the crash into the supermarket, the gun, Kerrys’ taking it?
8. Jo, the hold-up, the manager and delivered conspiring? Shannon’s arrival, Joe pretending to distil and? Tee and the diamonds, the potato chips, Shannon grabbing them, Kelly arriving at the supermarket, wanting the diamonds? The crash and the change of the situation?
9. The girls going to the bridge, stopping Shannon jumping?
10. Giving the diamonds back, the decision to go to New York for a holiday – Kelly on the plane and their not knowing?
11. The character of each girl, how well-delineated? The time shifts, the explanation of what went on from different angles?
