Tuesday

Director Sacha Bennett

Hopscotch

R4 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

With the two leading characters from the cult TV series Life On Mars, (Philip Glenister and John Simm) you would expect something a bit better than average. You won’t be disappointed. At only 78 minutes this is a short film, but the drama, plot twists and occasional bits of humour are well up with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels as an example of British crime stories.

Start with a skilled group of bank robbers known to the police as “the Cowboys”. They rob a bank every few days. Their robberies are meticulously planned and well executed. They plan to knock over a bank on Tuesday for a huge emerald being stored there.

On this robbery there are some problems with their plan. Two underpaid women on the bank staff have already stolen the emerald and arranged to post it out to one of the girls’ homes.

An elderly man who needs money for his retirement enters the bank and holds it up – just an opportunity robbery – and in the confusion the bank guard shoots himself.

At this point the Cowboys enter the bank, walking right into the shambles. They are surprised to find the emerald is already gone. They are even more surprised when the police burst in sooner than expected, on an exercise to improve their response times.

Two detectives, one nearing retirement, are trying to sort out the mess but are not aware that there were actually three separate robberies. The plot isn’t going to get any clearer as further entanglements are revealed. What crime has been committed? Who is getting away with what? Where is the emerald? And there is a totally unexpected twist at the end.

This is Sacha Bennett’s first feature film. He has been actor, writer, producer and director for a number of TV shows. His first short film in 2006, Devilwood, was not a spectacular success. Tuesday deserves to do better. It has all that is finest in British movies – a quality script with a well developed but not too obvious plot, quality acting, and direction and production values of the highest calibre. Bennett’s background and experience show through. Some of the characters could have been allowed to develop their parts more, but the film looks like it was made on a tight budget and extra running time may not have been possible.

Extras include a “gag reel” that suggests the actors were having a good time making the film, and the usual “making of”.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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