Somers Town

Somers Town is a small film about a small subject, directed by Shane Meadows. It follows the meeting and subsequent unlikely friendship between Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) and Marek (Piotr Jagiello). Tomo runs away from a dead-end life in Nottingham to London, where he happens on Marek from Poland, who lives with his father. Unknown to his father, Marek begins to hide Tomo in their flat, and together, the boys develop a shared crush on Maria, a Parisian waitress at the local café. It's as simple and as elegant as that.

The relationship between Marek and his father is interestingly portrayed, a scene in which they work together to improve their English by reading a tabloid agony aunt column to each other being particularly memorable. The reconciliation scene between the two is also interesting, not least because it is completely in Polish. I don't speak a word of Polish, but the emotion carries across the language barrier without impedance.

However, the relationship the boys have with Maria is not explored in that much depth. We see the boys both have a crush on her, and she is sweet enough to indulge them in their games to impress her, but there seems to be very little more to it. Perhaps this intentional, an attempt at signifying that, like the nature of this adolescent crush, there is very little real substance to it.

The film has a great sense of humour, with Tomo's "charm" drawing much of the laughs, although Perry Benson’s traditional Cockney "entrepreneur" Graham adds more than a chuckles. (The scene in which he enlists Marek's help through giving him an Arsenal jersey and then telling him that "that's yours to keep, and all you have to do is help me move these deck chairs" stands out in particular.)

An interesting little film, and with only a 75 minute runtime, it is most certainly worth a look. B.