Reality

Directed by Anil Mehra

2022

Beyond Truth Productions

Reality is a new hard-hitting drama that comes courtesy of West Midlands director Anil Mehra which shows a family’s struggle with mental health and dealing with their fractured relationships.

The viewer is introduced to Jason (Jamie Causer) who meets up with Amy (Laura Fleming) at a mental institute. There is no love lost between them as they snipe in a corridor. We then discover Jason is there to see his father Patrick (Matthew Chambers) who is revealed to also be the ex-partner of Amy herself.

Also joining them is Patrick’s daughter Natalie (Megan Oxtoby) and the film quickly pulls us into the trio’s conflicting issues.

As they continue to bicker, Dr. Glover (Tonia Daley-Campbell) arrives and explains that although Patrick was making progress, he’s now stopped communicating and has also assaulted a member of her staff.

Reality sets up its characters well in the first few minutes although it could have been considered that the story of Patrick’s recent behaviour be shown on screen rather than simply told to us by a character. The old mantra of 'show not tell'.

However, the three are soon led into a room ready for their intervention with Patrick. He seems surprisingly normal but although the group begin to chit-chat, it soon descends into more arguing and accusations.

The film is shot solidly with well composed camerawork yet although the white walls and blank corridors convey the feeling of a sterile and cold institution, the reality is that it’s not the most aesthetic thing to see on screen. Something more visually interesting may have really helped in the long run.

And it’s a small point, but by the end I noticed that the poor quality of the film’s poster undersells the excellent quality of the film. I’ve reminded filmmakers in the past to get designers in to create their marketing and here it requires a do-over. A HD screengrab of the film would, in my mind, be a step in the right direction, but as always this is subjective of course.

Aside from that, the film has a good script with lots of tense conflict. They mystery is well set-up providing the audience with the necessary intrigue of why Patrick is there and what’s currently going on which helps keep things engaging.

With the background to be uncovered and fingers being pointed, I’m very keen on drama created through dialogue too. As a fan of 12 Angry Men, putting a group of people into one room to slowly expose their resentments, secrets and biases can be a great narrative device.

And it’s put to good use here as well, as we eventually arrive at a moment of explosive outrage as Patrick accuses them of being self-centred and not helping him in his time of need.

As he gives context to his situation the audience is finally pulled in deep and we get some clarity and perhaps a little hope at the end of a struggling scenario. However, all may not be what it seems and the film has a gut-wrenching ‘rug-pull’ finale which mostly works but does un-do the heartfelt monologue preceding it a little.

By the end though, Reality has lots of things going in its favour. Some small tweaks to the visuals/location and a bit more effort to the poster (which doesn’t really matter but always helps entice more viewers to watch in the first place) could bump up the quality.

However, with five strong performances from the ensemble cast, a well-honed unpredictable storyline and plenty of conflict in the dialogue and script, this simple drama shows more than a lot of promise for the director Anil Mehra

★★★☆☆

Michael Sales