THE BIG ISSUE

Four years in the making, writer director Charles Teton's Liverpool set labour of love tells a tale of forbidden love. The picture's summertime heroes are pouty Jess (Joeline Garner Joel) and boxing wannabe Abe (Steve Ako), who set up home undeterred by racism, money worries and foaming-at-the-mouth opposition from Jess's mean-minded Dad. For a time all seems hunky-dory. Abe's boxing is going great guns, the couple's flat is painted in bright new colours and a nursery prepared in readiness for their new arrival. But in true kitchen-sink fashion. There is trouble Lurking around the corner. Nudged along by an ambient reggae soundtrack. Teton's film is an evocative piece of work, with sparse flashes of dialogue and lots of lovingly composed shots of grimy, industrialized, Merseyside, But while (Dark Summers) honest, unpretentious nature is initially intriguing, a weary lack of ingenuity eventually slows it down. Teton shows real skill in crafting mood and atmosphere but the film's purposely-minimalistic performances are sometimes just too underplayed.

XB