Rare Beasts

A career-driven, hedonistic single mother (Billie Piper) falls for a charming but angry and quite hateful traditionalist man (Leo Bill).

It’s hard not to watch this without thinking about Billie Piper’s personal history, notably her marriage (and subsequent divorce) to the actor-turned right-wing nutter Lawrence Fox. This is very much an anti-romcom, where the two characters never quite like each other, but the screenplay gives you just enough of a glimpse into what they might see in each other to sell the story.

The plot is smart and off-beat, the writing sharp, the performances are great and there are a couple of stand out scenes that are shot with some flair. I loved the wedding dance scene, and the David Thewlis-Kerry Fox scenes rang true.

Yes it all gets a bit messy at the end but that sort of works with the ethos of the film. This is a great debut, and I hope we get to see more from Billie Piper as a director.