Wreckers – review

For her debut feature, British film-maker Dictynna Hood has created a brooding drama of rural disquiet and sexual tension. It's technically accomplished, though perhaps over-determined and self-conscious. Benedict Cumberbatch plays David, a schoolteacher who takes a job in his home village in Kent, moving back there with his young wife, Dawn, played by Claire Foy, also a teacher. They are fixing up a cottage there, and their marriage is happy, although with some tension about trying for a baby. Then David's disturbed younger brother, Nick (Shaun Evans), shows up; he has been away in the army. Nick starts telling the increasingly uncomfortable Claire about all the village's secrets, and his brother's secrets, too. Nick may look like the disturbed one, but David isn't quite the cool customer he pretends to be. There are plenty of lingering looks of suspicion or rebuke, plenty of mood-enhancing shots; the actual narrative is arguably not managed quite as well as it could have been. But this is a very sure-footed and confident piece of work.