Comes A Bright Day (DVD)

Starring: Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots, Timothy Spall, Kevin McKidd
Director: Simon Aboud
Running Time: 87 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: August 6th, 2012

Director Simon Aboud (who’s Paul McCartney’s son-in-law, no less) assembles a good, small cast for the Comes A Bright Day, including Submarine’s Craig Roberts, 28 Weeks Later’s Imogen Poots, Grey’s Anatomy’s Kevin McKidd and the always excellent Timothy Spall. Roberts plays a young Sam, who bigs himself up when he meets a pretty girl called Mary (Poots) who assumes he’s rich because of the watch he’s wearing. He heads to the upmarket jewellery store where she works to ask her out, just in time for a pair of armed robbers to turn up.

The store’s owner (Spall) trips the alarm, and soon he and the two young people are being held hostage by the sociopathic Cameron (McKidd) and his nervous young accomplice Clegg (Josef Atlin). As the robbers try to negotiate with the police and find a way out, the danger inside the shop increases, with Cameron always on the edge of going loco and killing somebody. As Mary begins to discover Sam has been lying to her about his job and wealth, his position becomes even more dangerous when she begins to think he may be in on the robbery.

With its intimate setting – 75% of it takes place in a single room – and small cast there’s a slightly play-like feel to Comes A Bright Day. I’m not saying it’s stagey, as it isn’t, but it has the same ability to feel intimate and draw you in, transcending its physical scale. Things admittedly sag in the middle, but it’s largely very entertaining, doing a good job of making each character unique and using that to pull the plot forward (so often the plot drags the characters in thrillers).

There’s nothing earth-shattering here, but it’s a competent, entertaining ride, helped by a cast who could easily gone completely over-the-top but are smart enough to keep things contained and allow the tension to build. The DVD also includes about 20-minutes worth of featurettes, which take an interesting look behind the scenes, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, as well as some slightly random but fun b-roll footage.

Overall Verdict: A good little Brit thriller, which uses its small cast and intimate setting to create tension and entertain.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac