Dark River 2017

     This film is partially based on the novel Trespass by Rose Tremain.  Alice returns to her home village for the first time in 15 years.  She  has been working as a traveling sheep-shearer.  Her father has died and her brother Joe took care of him until he died.  Ruth has come back to run the sheep farm in North Yorkshire and she is claiming tenancy for the farm.  She believes it is rightfully her farm but her brother believes it should belong to him.  Joe feels resentment because he was left to care for their father.  Ruth believes their father promised the farm to her.

     There is a LOT of darkness in this film.  The countryside is gray, dull and it gets a lot of heavy rain.  It can be also be beautiful at times.  There is a LOT of backbreaking work on a sheep farm.  It doesn’t help the mood with Ruth and Joe at odds with each other over ownership of the property.  Too dark and violent for younger viewers.  Only appropriate for the oldest and most mature teens.  This is because there are some startlingly violent sequences.  3* (This movie is OK)

90 min, Drama directed and written by Clio Barnard, story development by Lila Rawlings with Ruth Wilson, Johan Russell, Paul Robertson, Sean Bean, Una McNulty, Esme Creed-Miles, Aiden McCullough, Olivia Brennan, Mark Stanley, Joe Dempsie, Mike Noble, Steve Garti.

Note:  Imdb 5.8* out of 10* with 2,873 reviews, Roger Ebert 1 1/2* Brian Tallerico, Rotten Tomatoes 79% with 58 critics 65% with 738 user ratings, Slant Magazine 2 1/2* Keith Watson, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Wendy Ide, Metacritic 69 out of 100 with 22 critics reviews (positive 15, mixed 6, negative 1), 6.6 out of 10 with 13 user scores (positive 7, mixed 4, negative 2), avclub.com Mike D’Angelo B-, Amazon 3.4* out of 5* with 116 reviews. 

Special Note:  Three actors in this film are from the series Game of Thrones 2011.  Sean Bean was Ned Stark, Mark Stanley was Grenn and Joe Dempsie was Gundry.