28/05/12 The Hide (2008)

Very good mini-budget Brit film. Neil's dad from The Inbetweeners plays a stuffy, prissy amateur ornathologist slaphead who has set up camp in the birdwatching hide of the title, to await the arrival of some obscure winged idiot.

He's happy laying out his equipment with a compulsive neatness, eating a substantial packed lunch and talking to another twitcher over a CB radio. Assuming his chum has a comparable social skill set, their chosen handles of "Sexgod" and "Leviathon" are both amusing and somewhat telling of the small-man world they live in.

After twenty minutes or so, an unshaven, shady looking scouse chap turns up at the hide, claiming to be in need of shelter from the inclement weather. He is obviously troubled by something and seems reluctant to offer much of a story beyond that he was staying with a friend nearby and was out walking by the marshlands. With a working class accent and shabby manner he's the social opposite of Birdy. Why does he have a pistol, what is he hiding?

This is adapted from a play, performed for a few weeks in the upstairs of a pub, which explains the single set and cast of two. The acting is fantastic, the photography is good and although the ending can be fairly easily guessed at, it holds your interest all the way though. There's also a nice short 'making of' on the DVD.

Well worth a purchase.

9/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305816/

Perkin.