Hallam Foe (2007) Synopsis:
HALLAM FOE is a darkly funny, bittersweet coming of age story about a 17-year-old misfit who likes to watch the world from a tree house in the grounds of his father's house in the Scottish Borders.
Hallam is almost over the sudden death of his mother when he begins to suspect that his beautiful step mother may have had a hand in her death, and it doesn't help that Hallam fancies her rotten. After a confrontation with his step mum, Hallam escapes to Edinburgh. Out of money and out of friends, he finds his tree-top skills well suited to the rooftops of the city, where he lives ferally, attempting to avoid the perils of the streets below and becoming obsessed with a gorgeous girl who happens to look just like his mother…
Hallam Foe (2007) Movie Review:
Edinburgh is underused in British cinema: "Trainspotting" was filmed almost entirely in Glasgow, while 2005's "Festival" felt like a missed opportunity. So, without wanting to sound like someone from the tourist board, it is with pleasure that I can announce that "Hallam Foe" uses the city incredibly well, and understands its cinematic potential and dark beauty. It is a return to form from director David MacKenzie, who made the excellent "Young Adam" but whose last movie, "Asylum," was an ambitious misfire. All three of these movies are dark and slightly puzzling, and all three feature sex scenes that are interesting and erotic, but "Hallam Foe" is lighter and more comic than the others.
I'm using 'light' and 'comic' as relative terms here, because "Hallam Foe" is nevertheless the story of a teenage voyeur - 17 at the start of the movie, 18 by the end - mourning the loss of his mother, who died a couple of years before the events of this film. He directs his anger at the loss towards his father (Ciaran Hinds) and stepmother (Claire Forlani), although they are still on his list of subjects for voyeurism; he spies on their sex life, along with the sex lives of half the neighbours. When his stepmother finds out he flies the nest and heads for Edinburgh, breaking the SIM card from his phone on the way. He goes from the comfort and wealth of his family (which he never fully enjoyed anyway; he spends most of his time in his tree house) to what amounts to homelessness in Edinburgh.
There, he spots a woman who looks uncannily like his mother, follows her, finds she works for a hotel, and talks his way into a job as a kitchen porter there. He becomes fixated on her, and she finds him rather amusing in his enthusiasm. Her name turns out to be Kate (she's played by Sophia Myles), and he is soon spying on her, particularly on her love life with the obnoxious (and married-with-kids) Alasdair (Jamie Sives), another hotel employee. His obsession is Oedipal all right, but a little more complex; his sexual attraction to her, which is emotionally awkward enough, is further complicated by his unresolved feelings about her death.
Hallam is played by Jamie Bell, the young Brit famous for playing "Billy Elliot." He is in pretty much every scene in this movie, and he has clearly grown as an actor, communicating depth, confusion and sadness in a performance of a character unsure of himself but somehow confident in his uncertainty; he has allowed his voyeuristic tendency to develop into a bad habit, something he can feel familiar with without risking any real human interaction. He writes about what he sees in his diary, like a scientist taking field notes. He is the embodiment of the troubled teenager, but he also reminded me of the curious younger child, sitting at the top of his stairs and listening to the grown-ups talk, hearing of their strange adult world.
Though it seems to stem from dark ideas, "Hallam Foe" has moments of sweetness, warmth and humour: Maurice Roeves and Ewan Bremnar provide laughs playing other members of hotel staff, employing colourful language and unsubtle anecdotes, and when things do go well for Hallam the dark side of his nature, and his environment, drift away. His personality is one that drifts away from real darkness anyway, simplifying the problems he faces and running from any darkness he encounters in Edinburgh, preferring to scurry across the rooftops, peering at other people's lives and wondering what it feels like to be on the other side of the glass.
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Hallam Foe (2007) review written by: Adam Whyte
6th September, 2008 
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