Going Back (I) (2001) User Reviews

Touching . Perhaps Too Much So

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 28 September 2005]

What would you do if a relative committed suicide ? How would you break it to other members of the family who didn't know what happened . This is the situation Douglas finds himself in , in a short film by Conal Percy entitled GOING BACK

I finally got round to watching this a few hours after I'd seen ANGELA'S ASHES and I don't think I was capable of smiling for a very long time afterwards . It's rather poignant and right away you feel for Douglas because you just know he's going to tell his grandmother that his father didn't die from a heart attack but committed suicide by gassing himself in the car , a car that he now drives about in . As Bob said in his review everything about this short film is natural and moving , but it is perhaps a little too moving , so much so that you feel a wave of depression washing over you . Yet another film that is a little too sad for its own good

A touching little story thanks to convincingly natural characters, dialogue and acting

[bob the moo · 29 August 2005]

When his father commits suicide, Douglas returns home to see his Granny for the first time in a year. His Uncle Dennis doesn't want a word said about the means of his father's death but rather that he keep his Granny in the dark on the issue of suicide. The plot is quite simple and requires us to step into the characters quickly, because it is in their hearts where the story really happens. The writing helps a great deal on this, because the dialogue and characters are well crafted and convincing from the very start and it is easy to feel for them. The acting goes a long way to making this work as well, because they are also touchingly convincing. Taylor does well to play character holding it in while also letting the audience see while Audrey Brady is impressive as the Granny. Paul Tonkinson is a strange find in a minor role as the mortician. The direction is good and uses a mix of shots and frames well – the simplest and most effective is the camera looking in the windscreen of the car, static at the end as Douglas and his Granny talk.