Mind-Set
Mikey Murray’s tragi-comic debut may bring Mike Leigh to mind but it boasts its own individuality.
This film marks the feature debut of the writer/director Mikey Murray. He comes from Scotland but is now a teacher at Lincoln University and it is in that city that Mind-Set was shot. In the event we don't actually gain from the unfamiliar location because this is an intimate work that mainly takes place indoors. The central focus is on a couple who have been together for years, the passage of time having reduced their lives to routine and unexciting familiarity. She, Lucy (Eilis Cahill), is an office clerk who dislikes her job and he, Paul (Steve Oram), is a screenwriter who works from home. In Lucy’s case underlying dissatisfaction leads to her becoming involved with a new work colleague whom she has befriended, Daniel (Peter Bankolé). She joins him on the squash court and in time it is she rather than Daniel who encourages the idea of a sexual liaison in a local hotel but it does not go well.
As a tragi-comedy of everyday life Mind-Set brings to mind the films of Mike Leigh but it has its own voice and Murray’s writing skills create persuasive characters which further gain from the notably skilled playing of all three principals. The film also benefits from the fact that studying a long-term relationship that has lost its spark is a relatively unfamiliar theme. These qualities make Mind-Set worthwhile viewing but, if Murray’s writing ability extends successfully to a number of sexual scenes that effectively capture the discomfort involved, his directorial skills are less sure-footed. In part the doubts that arise relate to tone.
One novelty here is to be found in the decision to film mainly in black-and-white: colour is limited to images which, including those seen at the very start, show Lucy out of doors with a horse in a field. They represent in a dream-like way another existence, a life that might have developed in a different direction. The soundtrack that initially accompanies these scenes features the song ‘Who Am I’ performed by Country Joe & The Fish. However, this represents a contrast to all the other footage which is so indicative of the drabness of everyday life, a reality that stands in opposition to those brief scenes in colour. However, before long the sense of realism in the narrative footage conflicts with the not infrequent introduction of other songs heard on the soundtrack.
Elsewhere directorial misjudgments merge with weaknesses in the writing. Good as the characterisations are, the fact that the screenplay burdens both Lucy and Paul with health problems seems inappropriate unless those issues were going to be more fully integrated and investigated. In Paul’s case we discover that he is suffering from agoraphobia. One scene shows him intending to go out but failing to leave the house. Not only is this introduced rather suddenly but in addition Murray seeks to express it by making the image somewhat blurry. That may be intended as a reflection of how Paul is seeing the outside world but it occurs in an objective shot of him and that makes it illogical, confusing rather than revealing. More seriously Lucy’s health issues are far too vaguely indicated being largely limited to mentions of her need to take pills. At one point she looks out at traffic and sees it in a speeded-up shot but more unusual by far is an earlier shot of traffic driving backwards. These images may be meant to convey Lucy’s state of mind but stylised moments such as these feel self-conscious rather than meaningful and, given the way in which the story concludes, the film badly needs clear handling of this aspect of the tale.
It's a pity that these doubts arise because, even in the scenes of domestic gatherings with friends when comparisons with Mike Leigh are most apparent, Mind-Set is good enough not to feel over-shadowed. At its best the film creates rounded, individual characters and these are roles which are filled with distinction by Cahill, Oram and Bankolé.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Eilis Cahill, Steve Oram, Peter Bankolé, Pauline Lynch, Andrew John Tait, Rhiannon Wyn, Philip Stevens, Lucy-Jane Quinlan, Julia Deakin, Robin Laing, Jason Isaacs.
Dir Mikey Murray, Pro Mikey Murray, Darren Scales and Josh Mandel, Screenplay Mikey Murray, Ph Jack Shelbourn, Pro Des Hazel Donnelly, Ed Mat Owen, Costumes Lucy Norton and Hollie Starr.
Middleman Productions/Industry Standard Films-Bulldog Film Distribution.
89 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 6 October 2023. Cert. 18.
