Scrapper

The Plot: 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) is mourning the loss of her mother from a terminal illness. Georgie is going through the various stages of grief, but getting on with her daily life. Social Services aren’t aware that she’s living alone and fending for herself. She is self-sufficient though and makes money from stolen bikes and hangs out with best friend Ali (Alin Uzun) who keeps quiet about her situation. One day, a young man leaps over the fence and announces himself as Georgie’s father. Jason (Harris Dickinson) is a bit lost himself, so he comes to know the daughter he left behind long ago…

The Verdict: Sometimes a film doesn’t have to try too hard to impress, particularly if it’s a feature debut. It can be as simple as possible in its presentation and directorial delivery, but also as complex as its human characters navigating the choppy waters of growing up and accepting responsibility. It’s a delicate balance to pull off, but in the right hands it can get the tone spot on without compromising character development. This is where we find ourselves with Scrapper, a small but well-formed British film from writer-director Charlotte Regan which counts Michael Fassbender as an executive producer. With his name attached, it no doubt helped the film get funding. Otherwise this is very much a distinctly authentic new voice in British cinema which is both youthful in its exuberance and wise in its everyday penny philosophy.

Regan’s script is deceptively simple, setting itself up as a cautious-child-meets-estranged-father-story, but with the added flavour that Georgie is a precocious 12-year-old girl who has had to grow up a little bit faster. The film begins as such, amusingly dismissing the theory that it takes a village to raise a child. When her absent father shows up for the first time in her life, she doesn’t quite know what to make of him. Jason isn’t exactly a model father – there’s a hint of past troubles and a man who shirked his responsibility as a father because he believed he was too young at the time. The film spends a good bit of time with them hanging out as they size each other up, wondering whether they actually need each other after all this time while keeping Social Services at bay (Regan explains that away without dwelling too much on it – it’s not a social issues film). This is, after all, a story about two people finding each other and building an emotional bridge from the past to the present.

Regan rounds out these two character arcs with a refreshing lack of sentimentality. The Hollywood version of this story would be loaded with saccharine and have a cutesy family get-together at the end, preferably at Thanksgiving or Christmas. For her film, all Regan really needs is a scribbled note, a voicemail and her leading lady to deliver the kind of powerful emotional payoff that gives the film its heart and soul. Credit then to young Lola Campbell in her feature debut. She’s able to bring the warmth of humour and quiet intelligence required of the character on the page, but also work well with a fine, established actor like Harris Dickinson. It’s very much a delicate dance between them, as they move from scene-to-scene and deliver the kind of naturalistic performances that don’t appear to have been workshopped at all. There’s an admirable dose of realism about Georgie and Jason’s burgeoning relationship, dreamy in its aspirations yet grounded in realistic expectations.

Scrapper

Scrappy charmer

Scrapper (UK / 12A / 84 mins) In short: Scrappy charmer

Directed by Charlotte Regan.

Starring Lola Campbell, Harris Dickinson, Alin Uzun, Cary Crankson.

4

Scrappy charmer