MovieChat Forums > What Remains (2013) Discussion > Good idea but very poorly executed.

Good idea but very poorly executed.

posted 11 years ago by nicos21
10 replies | jump to latest

The idea is very good and I'm assuming is inspired by the tragic Joyce Vincent case. The actual development and script however is very average and at times laughable. There is so many cliches that I lost count (every overweight person stuffs themselves with chocolate, apparently) and Russell Tovey is absolutely awful. That school photograph scene still has me laughing out loud and by the way why on earth would a girl like Vidya be with him??? Poor character research there. And isnt it funny that not one normal petson lives in those flats? That aside, it is entertaining enough in its own way, but it's certainly not "great drama".

[–] Otkon 11 years ago

It just lost the plot this last episode. Literally. The premise of the show made it a necessity that we care about the plight of the fat girl. Unfortunately, the more back story we get the less empathy I have. I am not buying Threlfall as a detective, or Tovey as a straight guy. Not one resident of the building has any redeemable qualities. I don't even trust the pregnant woman - her name is Khan, after all.

And everything is just so relentlessly bleak. After Southcliffe and Broadchurch, enough with the exponentially dire British crime dramas.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] Otkon 11 years ago

And in this particular role, he appears to cringe at the sight of his "woman". In one dumb scene, she is lying on top of him, attempting intimacy, and he is quite tense and joyless about it. Yes, some gay actors can play straight with serious aplomb. And I have the capacity to recognize those roles when they do. Amazingly enough, I can also tell a thespian's character from their real-life persona! Unfortunately, the last time Jodie Foster got away with a heterosexual portrayal was as Iris in Taxi Driver. And in this show, Tovey is not convincing me that he is physically or mentally attracted to his theatrical female counterpart. Sorry.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] FlagSteward 11 years ago

he appears to cringe at the sight of his "woman". In one dumb scene, she is lying on top of him, attempting intimacy, and he is quite tense and joyless about it

Yes - that's the whole point, it's about giving him motivation for things he does later on. At the party later in the same episode he says something along the lines of "there's no danger of us disturbing you neighbours with our sex noises" - their physical relationship has broken down. It's quite common for blokes to lose interest in their women as they balloon during pregnancy.

I agree their whole relationship doesn't quite work, but more because I couldn't help wondering how they could buy a flat in a reasonable area of London on a single, near-minimum, wage. I think we're meant to believe that she's pregnant by accident but as a nice middle-class girl she's trying to do the decent thing with her bit of rough. It's got disaster written all over it of course, but that's two of the themes of the show, how we're all trapped by the past, and how relationships fall apart over time.

[–] ph75006 11 years ago

As an American, I wasn't familiar with these actors at all (aside from Steven Mackintosh and Indira Varma, both whom I recognize from Luther) and I totally bought Tovey's character as a straight guy. I felt that his character and Liz definitely had some chemistry...

[–] paddyirl 11 years ago

Agree its awful, and I agree no way would Vidya want Michael and then he goes and screws that below average looking chick downstairs (probably impregnated her while he's at it) who we are supposed to believe was hot stuff back in school.

Its turning into a parody and every man is some sex fiend it seems, none of them can control their dicks.

[–] bfan64 11 years ago

Can anyone tell me what was on the newspaper that Joe saw in the outdoors trash bin in this last episode. It had other writing on it, but I couldn't make out what it said. (my screen is too dark)

[–] FlagSteward 11 years ago

If you meant the bin in the kitchen, it was a napkin from a takeaway coffee shop. Since he knew she would never go out to a coffee shop, he knew that someone else was visiting her. That gives him a reason to "forget" his books and come back home to check on her.

I think the point was not that she was especially gorgeous (although she'd look a lot better without that awful hair, presumably he'd been cutting it for 5 years), but that she was the first of her peer group to hit puberty.

[–] 11 years ago

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