TV Tommorow Night (Tueday) Channel 4 (United Kingdom)
'Cutting Edge'
'The Five of Us'
In The Sunday Times Culture Section Page 67 Sally Payne writes...
"A moving snapshot from within a Notting Hill flat shared by five adults
suggests something akin to Game On or Fiends,
but this is unique in the sense that each of the flatemates is labelled
"special needs", meaning having conditions whos efects
are, if not those of Downe's syndrome, then something similar to it.
The ethical and moral dichotomies here are countless. The politically
correct loby can hardly deny that these five are
remarkable in their independence- they attend college courses, part-tiem
jobs and day-centres outside their domestic
lives, but this film sticks strictly to their home life, where the presence
of care workers-should they be needed-is all that
marks them appart from any other, regular, urban mates. Or is it?
What about the subtitles, without which viewers, frankly, would not be able
to understand what is said? What about the
special concessions to their smutty, and yes, childsish sense of humor, at
which we are all supposed to laugh as shriekingly
as they do, but which would, at worst, offend and, at best, bore us without
that "special needs" label to cary it?
Is it sad watching them dress up and dance wildly at one of their number's
birthday party? Is it voyeristic to sit in on a
domestic argument that follows the sort of logic-or lack of it-that is more
familiar in the school playground? This film, by
producer/director Penny Woolcock is nothing if not cutting edge.
Amaryllis
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|