Ten years after directing and self-distributing his feature debut Papadopoulos & Sons, Marcus Markou is back with another impressively-put-together low-budget movie. This time around he’s made a serious and slightly self-conscious divorce drama with a pair of deeply-felt performances by Laura Bayston and Laurence Spellman. They play Cassie and Matthew, a couple from London, separating in their 40s.
To the outside world, Cassie and Matthew’s divorce looks like the model of amicability: they’ve managed to agree on everything without going to court. But it gets messy at their final mediation session, as years of hurt and resentment boil over. Cassie has been the breadwinner, and she can’t help bringing up the fact that she’s “giving” Matthew the house. Furious, he yells that he gave up a career in teaching to raise the kids. It’s a shaky start to the film, a bit shouty with some awkwardly clumsy comedy inserted by their hopeless mediator.
