Red Road (2006): Dir: Andrea Arnold / Cast: Katie Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Nathalie Press, Paul Higgins: Intriguing drama thriller about occurrence as Katie Dickie oversees activity on Red Road through surveillance cameras. One particular guy named Clyde catches her attention when she realizes that he was in jail and now out free. This leads her to stalking and eventually becoming involved in his world. Director Andrea Arnold has fun with the surveillance theme but it contains very little music. That can strike against the film in terms of presenting mood. Arnold treats the material as a sort of movie within a movie as Dickie becomes engrossed within a lifestyle she only observes from the outskirts. Why she is stalking this individual is not quite clear, nor are we given much to go on in terms of her fascination. Dickie does well as this obsessed woman who leaves her comfort zone as a surveillance voyeur on the outskirts of paranoia. Tony Curran plays Clyde who is known for his relations with women and lives with another bickering young couple in his apartment. He is the object of her obsession but his lifestyle is hardly pure. There are two colourful supporting roles played by Martin Compston and Nathalie Press. While the film clearly could have been better, it is purely surveillance as we watch and wait for answers. Score: 8 / 10

Really great little movie in many ways. It doesn't try to be more than it is and in that ways stays well clear of more contrived dramas. Realistic relationships and charactersTrue to life and also i must mention (silently) that it had one particular scene that made me break down...which is something i so rarely do!!!! For you that have seen it and have wee little ones, you will undoubtedly know the scene i am talking aboutWatch it if you haven't yet. Its not perfect by any means but a solid little movie

English screenwriter and director Andrea Arnold's feature film debut which she wrote, is based on characters developed by Danish screenwriter and director Lone Scherfig and Danish screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen. It premiered In competition at the 59th Cannes International Film Festival in 2006, was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival in 2006, was shot on location in Glasgow, Scotland and is a United Kingdom production which was produced by producer Carrie Comerford. It tells the story about a woman named Jackie Morrison who lives in an apartment in Maryhill, Glasgow in Scotland. One day whilst Jackie is in the city eye control room where she works, she notices the face of a man on one of the monitors whom she recognizes.Distinctly and subtly directed by UK filmmaker Andrea Arnold, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a moving and humane portrayal of a Scottish woman who after witnessing a man named Clyde Henderson whom she has not seen in six years begins to observe him closely. While notable for it's distinct and atmospheric milieu depictions, fine cinematography by Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, low-keyed production design by production designer Helen Scott and use of sound and colors, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about a person whom instigated by her sense of justice and search for closure becomes increasingly involved in the life of a person whom she has very little knowledge of, depicts an internal study of character.This heartrending, psychological, understated and observational drama from the mid-2000s which is set in a city in Scotland and where a wife and mother's viewpoint is gradually changed and something is awakened in her as she learns more about the person she is examining, is impelled and reinforced by it's narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, use of music, significant realism, incisive examination of its central themes and the commendable and naturalistic acting performances by Scottish actress Kate Dickie, Scottish actor Tony Curran, Scottish actor Martin Compston and English actress Natalie Press. A lyrical, unsentimental and liberating directorial debut which gained, among numerous other awards, the Special Jury Prize at the 59th Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

If you enjoy being bored senseless, watch this film. There is so much wrong with it that it is difficult to know where to start, but the obvious place is the over-long completely unnecessary sex scene. I think it is very wrong to ask serious actors to perform such an explicit scene as this. Even it was plausible that she would try to set him up in this way, the scene does not need to be so long or explicit. (Unless of course the film was exploring her sexual frustration and needs, which it is not. She has already had a fumble in a car with a married man. So much for losing your husband - let's deprive another woman of hers). The whole premise for this type of revenge in the film is ridiculous anyway - would a woman who had lost her husband and daughter to this man's drug driving really be able to face having sex with him, never mind the intimacy of cunnilingus. I think not. And then suddenly she decides to drop charges - just like that. I think the police would have something to say about that.Another thing - an urn with the ashes of an adult male is surprisingly HEAVY - she carried the urns of her husband and daughter as if they were a loaf of bread. Also, i think this film needs subtitles - not for the thick Glaswegian accents but for the constant mumbling going on.