Dummy film-maker is promising talent

Getting its London premiere tonight at Raindance, London’s "alternative" film festival, Matthew Thompson’s debut feature has a lot more going for it than its unfortunate title.

The story of two teenage brothers who lose their single-parent mother to an overdose, Thompson’s film has distant echoes of Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden but is all his own when it comes to the sensual, brooding atmosphere. The older boy, Danny (Aaron Johnson, very good), buries his grief in drugs and sex. The younger, Jack (Thomas Grant, phenomenal) goes into denial, bringing his mother a breakfast tray each morning, dressing up a dummy (hence the title) in her clothes and putting it in her bed.

But what makes the film so good is that Thompson never allows this obsessive behaviour to tip over into the Gothic. The script just about convinces as to why social services leave the boys alone; but once you accept that, the film’s treatment of their summer alone together is entirely convincing. So, too, is the surprise ending, which reveals Jack’s strength and the extent to which Danny has repressed his emotions.

The winner of the BBC’s New Film-maker’s Award in 2003 with his short film, Gone, Thompson reveals himself to be a film-maker of promise.

Raindance runs until Sunday. Information: www.raindance.co.uk.

Raindance Film Festival