‘The Levelling’ was my favourite of the year by a country
mile. You wouldn’t believe it was the feature film debut of its director and
writer, Hope Dickson Leach because the film has a level of elegance and depth
that many directors fail to reach in their entire careers. It’s rather short,
at slightly less than ninety minutes, but it effortlessly delivers more emotion
in that time than most films can hope to achieve.
The plot of the film is rather simple. A young woman who has
made a life for herself in a city is brought back to her rural roots when her
brother dies. It’s in this simplicity that the film thrives by becoming an
intelligent study on grief and loss. Ellie Kendrick is a force of nature in her portrayal of the protagonist Clover. In many ways, she is
more cultured and modern than her father, Aubrey. She can accept that the death
of her brother was suicide but is far less able to grapple with it than she
would like to admit.
Clover’s journey to try to understand the death of her
brother, Harry is oddly detached. It’s maybe a coping mechanism that comes from
when her mother died. She was at boarding school and Aubrey wouldn’t let her
come back. Detachment may be one coping mechanism, her other is the demonization
of her father. She has long blamed him for how he handled the death of her
mother and now she blames him for the death of Harry.
Blame is not in short supply in this movie. Even if honest
conversation is. It’s not a criticism of the film, it’s what makes it so
brutally honest and excellent. In the shadow of a suicide, people often don’t
really talk. They view it as an abstract because by doing that the rawness of
it is somewhat diluted. Aubrey deludes himself by calling it an accident but
Clover also deludes herself by pretending like she doesn’t blame herself.
Leach’s characterisation is done to perfection so that no
character fits neatly into the role of villain or hero. One can’t help but
notice though that a lot of what Clover carries on her shoulders could be
attributed to problematic masculinity. Aubrey kept his daughter away when his
wife died to protect her because he attributes strength with quietness. The
expectations of masculinity are then thrusted onto Harry who is unable to cope
and turns to suicide.
There is no way that Harry could win. The family farm that
his father was handing over to him was already failing. Their home has already
been ruined by a flood. They’ve been relegated to a caravan for months because
the insurance won’t pay out. None of this is his fault but he’s expected to
sort it all out without help and without showing emotion. Clover has escaped to
the city but Harry never had that option. Or at least he never saw it as a
potential avenue. That would be to admit failure and that is impossible for him
to concede.
Clover must deal with the fear and guilt that if she had
been there then Harry would still be alive. This obviously isn’t her fault and
yet these feelings are obviously felt by those around her. The only other
character that we get to know a lot about is a friend of Harry’s, James. Harry
doesn’t like Clover very much. It’s obvious that he feels that she’s betrayed
Harry in some way by not being around. It is also quite clear that Clover doesn’t
really trust James.
A lesser filmmaker would have had a plot twist in which
James killed Harry. Instead their relationship is shown to have been as
complicated and sincere as the one between Clover and Aubrey. It’s left ambiguous
as to whether James and Harry were together. James called himself Harry’s best
friend though he talks far more like someone that has lost the love of his life
than a best friend. It is obvious though that James was a rock for Harry.
It’s a scene between Clover and James which makes ‘The
Levelling’ my film of the year. Too often a narrative is created that suggests
homophobia is done with now and that people can come out freely. Only this past
month, Richard Hammond waxed lyrically about how effortlessly it seemed to be
gay now in a way that only a straight, privileged white man could. Leech quietly
and forcefully fights back against that in James.
James had a fight with Harry on the night that Clover’s
brother killed himself. At one point, he’d get a black eye from Harry. Later on
Harry would call him something in anger. James tells Clover that he can’t
remember. He obviously can. My guess is that it was some gay slur. Interestingly,
it’s one point that Clover doesn’t push. I couldn’t help but wonder if for all
her professed progressiveness, she didn’t want to know about James sexuality.
Because of her unwillingness to delve deeper, whatever the slur was, James will
most likely carry it to his death. It’s not unlikely that he’ll spend his
entire life in this village and that he’ll be forever in the closet.
Leach has delivered one of the best films I’ve ever watched
in ‘The Levelling.’ It shows the English countryside to be beautiful but also
doesn’t shy away from the brutality that rural life can be. There is grace and
beauty in this emotional, true to life tale that will stay with you long after
you’ve first watched it. I can’t wait to see what Leach does next because if
this is what she’s capable of in her first feature film, the future looks
incredibly bright.
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