Review: Exhibit A

Warp/Bigger Pictures, on DVD 4th December 2009

Making its debut on DVD after the current Paranormal Activity mania is a hand-held gem from Dom Rotheroe. It did the rounds at the festivals in 2007, picking up best feature at Raindance, then bagging itself nominations at the British Independent Film Awards, and now is the time to get your hands on it (order it from www.exhibitathemovie.com and a percentage of profits go to the NSPCC).

The police report opening sequence informs us the viewer they are watching a tape found at the murder scene, so the tension is palpaple even in the cleverly set-up mundanities of life in a suburban home. Filmed entirely on a commercial camcorder by the cast themselves, it very quickly loses any notions of gimmickry as you see how natural the cast are with each other. Bradley Cole is astonishing as the everyman father, trying to keep a good standard of living for his wife (the determined Angela Forrest) and teenage children (a cocky Oliver Lee, and a vulnerable Brittany Ashworth). The feeling of discomfort is underway as you feel invasive watching beautifucally captured moments of tenderness, elation and then the glimpses of the facade that will eat away at this family.

Cole plays the father as a loveable joker, whose desire to keep everyone happy leads him to make some terrible decisions. The merest flicker on his face in the corner of the screen is enough to know that the ridiculous lie told to his family early on is going to have tragic consequences. An ironic sequence starts the descent into the inevitable, as Cole films his children setting up a fake accident for You’ve Been Framed. The frustration builds as the father doesn’t feel his son is being genuine enough on film, and the sound of this once kindly man snapping under his financial burden is both heartbreaking and chilling. Ashworth’s lonely and confused Judith is the only one perceptive enough to realise what is happening to her adoring father, as it is her camera the bulk of the story is seen through.

The final twenty of the 85 minutes are devastating, and far scarier than any ghosts in the attic could be. Nothing can prepare for the helplessness of watching this family’s fate unfold, and while some of it may seem convoluted for the camera’s effect, the single-shot, static sequence that seals their fate is horrifically real and all the more disturbing as the worst of it takes place in a unique off-screen way. Exhibit A will leave you shell-shocked; bleak, blood-curdling, stomach-sinking and unforgettable.

Rating: 4/5
Becky Reed