Critic Reviews
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Dave Calhoun, Time Out
Norris works hard to inject some joy and wonder into what could easily be a much more dark and miserable experience.
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Charles Gant, Variety
Norris' film does find a beating heart, if not exactly a focus, in the tender father-daughter relationship between Archie and Skunk, nicely underplayed by Roth and Laurence.
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David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
The film is rich in poignant moments and negotiates its frequent shifts from violence to gentleness to sorrow with sensitivity.
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Thomas Caldwell, Cinema Autopsy
A moving and thoughtful cinema experience.
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Simon Foster, sbs.com.au
It is a sad viewing experience, but never a pessimistic one. Skunk's world is full of love; whatever fractured form it may take, Broken always returns to that enriching notion.
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Jim Schembri, 3AW
Taut, engrossing domestic tale [that] takes place in a cul-de-sac where a violent neighbour-on-neighbour attack provides the springboard for a strong story about secrets, lies and unravelling lives.
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Aaron Yap, Flicks.co.nz
Amounts to a contrived, feel-bad suburban melodrama where a series of head-slapping misunderstandings lead to everyone being as miserable as possible.
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Simon Weaving, Screenwize
A moving and visually beautiful story of an eleven-year old girl who is increasingly drawn into the complicated and cruel world of the everyday English suburbs.
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Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile
The adaptation from the novel is excellent, a fine example of how character and place can be sculpted from prose
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Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
Acclaimed theatre director Rufus Norris has taken the various story strands of Mark O'Rowe's proficient adaptation of Daniel Clay's novel and plaited them into an emotional tour de force
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Blake Howard, 2UE That Movie Show
Broken takes a toxic suburbia and tenderly examines the fallout.
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Eddie Harrison, The List
The final suggestion that people on medication are just a mood-swing from being a danger to the community consigns Norris's dull-looking film to the lowest echelons of stigmatizing thought.
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Philip French, Observer [UK]
Erupts into unpersuasive, blood-drenched melodrama that is no doubt intended as a wake-up call to a troubled country.
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Alistair Harkness, Scotsman
Even the presence of Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy and Denis Lawson can't sell us on scenarios that make The Jeremy Kyle Show look restrained.
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Damon Wise, Radio Times
Laurence in particular is dynamic as Norris's young muse, a guileless screen presence who effortlessly charms us back to childhood.
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Derek Malcolm, This is London
It presents a portrait of British life that may indeed make you wonder about the origins of the 2011 riots, but also misses as many targets as it hits.
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Rich Cline, Contactmusic.com
While this strikingly well-made film is a great calling card for rising-star filmmaker Norris, it's also so relentlessly dark and unsettling that it's difficult to see the point of it all.
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Emma Dibdin, Digital Spy
Roth is charming and Laurence is an intriguing young talent to watch, but Broken is a shaggy dog story wallowing in emotions that it seldom earns.
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Grant Rollings, Sun Online
As is so often the case with gritty British realism, it sacrifices the realism for extra piles of grit.
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Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
Mainly worth seeing for a sparky performance by Eloise Laurence, whose cheeky smile lights up the surrounding miserabilism.
Read all 23 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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11 year-old Skunk (Laurence) lives in a suburban English cul-de-sac with her divorced father Archie (Roth) and 14 year-old brother Jed (Milner). Also sharing the house is Polish au-pair Kasia (Marjanovic) who has been dating Irish teacher Mike for several years but, growing tired of… More
11 year-old Skunk (Laurence) lives in a suburban English cul-de-sac with her divorced father Archie (Roth) and 14 year-old brother Jed (Milner). Also sharing the house is Polish au-pair Kasia (Marjanovic) who has been dating Irish teacher Mike for several years but, growing tired of his fear of commitment, begins to conduct an affair with Archie. Skunk is friendly with Rick, a mentally challenged young man who is sectioned following a violent attack from neighbor Oswald, whose daughter falsely accused him of rape. When Mike rescues Skunk from an attack by Oswald's bullying young daughters, he too is accused of rape and finds himself the victim of their father's anger.
Both my plot synopsis and the film's marketing would have you believe 'Broken' is yet another gritty urban British drama but this couldn't be further from the truth. For the most part, 'Broken' is charmingly upbeat, full of characters who are so damn nice you can't help but grin like an idiot while you watch them. Roth has called this his most difficult role as he's never been called on to play such an out and out nice guy before. Like 'Little Children' and 'Welcome to the Dollhouse', it focuses on how ill-equipped most of us are to deal with human relationships. You're never sure whether you want to give its characters a hug or a smack, but they're thoroughly engaging either way. What ultimately keeps 'Broken' from becoming a great film, rather than a merely good one, is an overly sentimental final act which hinges on an incident that's all too predictable.
While the entire ensemble deliver top-notch performances, it's Laurence who steals the show. Like Thomas Doret in last year's 'The Kid With a Bike', she delivers a genuinely child-like performance. Unlike many child actors, you never feel like you're just watching a miniature adult. She manages to evoke the character's intelligence without ever coming across as arrogant or unlikable. Mark O'Rowe's script helps of course. Viewing adult problems through a child's eyes could have been handled in a far more trite manner. If this were an American studio production (or even an indie like 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'), no doubt we'd have to endure an irritating voice-over in which Laurence tells us how she's so much cleverer than us grown-ups.
Like the best movies about childhood, 'Broken' asks plenty of questions but never has the arrogance to attempt to answer them.
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