Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Comes A Bright Day' A Warm, Enjoyable, Romance When It Stops Trying To Be A Thriller

Commercials director Simon Aboud takes to feature writing/directing with this London-set film detailing a young man's meet cute with the girl of his dreams, and the violent armed robbery that subsequently throws them together. If that description sounds a little schizophrenic, it's a quality that proves the film's making and its undoing; as a heightened situation that forces our leads to interact, pressure-cooker style, the robbery is an inspired setting, but when the thriller elements are foregrounded, the tonal contortions often prove too much, and the legs go from under it. However Craig Roberts, in his first lead since his breakout role in Richard Ayoade's "Submarine," heads up a totally huggable cast in Imogen Poots and Timothy Spall, with Kevin McKidd and Josef Altin (a now familiar face for "Game of Thrones" fans) on bad guy duties...

...This edginess is mostly down to the always reliable Kevin McKidd to engender, as the true psycho of the criminal duo, Cameron (in a jokey reference to British politics, the armed robbers choose the aliases Cameron and Clegg). And while the Virgin Mary-masked McKidd does some sterling work and creates the film's only moments of genuine menace, evenness of tone is not helped by a conceit which sees him occupy a different physical space from the rest of the cast for a large portion of the film. This means that the psychological journey he goes on is a solo one, and cutting to his troubled character fixating and fantasising feels jarring, the more so for the storytelling, getting-to-know-you vibe in the next room over.

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Comes A Bright Day is the story of Sam (Craig Roberts), a young man who works in a London hotel, running errands for the hotel manager and guests while making plans for the restaurant he will open one day with best friend Elliot (Anthony Welsh). On one of these errands to a jewellery store however, Anthony gets caught up in a robbery which very quickly turns into a hostage situation. With store owner Charlie (Timothy Spall) and employee-slash-new-crush Mary (Imogen Poots), the hostages try their best to figure out a solution to their situation — but the increasingly erratic thief Cameron (Kevin McKidd) isn’t making things any easier.

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Intandem's Bright Day shines for buyers

EXCLUSIVE: Simon Aboud’s debut feature goes to Australia, CIS, Middle East, Portugal.

Intandem Films has closed a number of deals on Comes A Bright Day which premieres in Generation 14plus today.

Simon Aboud’s debut feature has sold to Australia (Vendetta), CIS (Carmen), Middle East (Falcon), Portugal (Lusomundo). Other deals are in negotiations now.

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SYNOPSIS Actually, all he wanted to do was ask her out to a concert. When Smith, a page at a five-star London hotel meets Mary Bright, a sales assistant working at a discerning jewellers, he’s well and truly smitten. But no sooner does Sam enter the posh portals than a group of heavily armed men bursts into the shop. The raid soon becomes disastrous: Sam is knocked to the ground and a female customer, an innocent bystander, is shot and killed. When a police armed response unit surrounds the building the thieves try to flee but are caught in hefty crossfire. Sam, Mary and her boss Charlie are now alone with two criminals – one an unpredictable, stuttering psychopath and the other, a wounded man who is very testy. The two men give their hostages a hard time. But while the gangsters furiously plan their escape route to the strains of soothing classical music, Sam, Charlie and Mary manage to find time for conversation. Plans for the future? Events come to a head: unable to contact the Minister for Home Affairs, the police allow their final ultimatum to come and go. Nonetheless, a romantic love story – in spite of everything.

Tickets (on Sale from tomorrow 6 Feb)

Berlinale website

_Last night was our official cast and crew screening of our finished film ahead of our forthcoming Berlin adventures. It was a wonderful occasion and a lovely excuse to see everyone from our beloved Comes A Bright Day family and catch up ahead of sending our baby out into the world.

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http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-playlists-most-anticipated-indie-films-of-2012The 2012 Berlinale has added 12 world premieres and three international ones, completing the program for its Generation lineup. Now a total of 58 short and feature films make up the Generation Kplus (films featuring young children) and Generation 14plus (films featuring actors age 14 and up) competitions.

Among the high profile additions making their world premieres: "ARCADIA" directed by Sundance alum Olivia Silver and starring John Hawkes ("Winter's Bone"); and the UK romantic thriller "Comes a Bright Day" starring "Submarine" breakout Craig Roberts and Imogen Poots ("Fright Night").

Berlin's Generation programs are typically known for being a bit grittier than similar programs in the US

Generation 14plus
 
"Comes A Bright Day" (Great Britain, by Simon Aboud) – Against the backdrop of an armed robbery at a London jewellers, much more is at stake than money. Where diamonds are involved, love is not far. Cast: Craig Roberts, Imogen Poots, Kevin McKidd, Timothy Spall and others. World Premiere

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In a world where studio movies often get release dates before they have a script, it's relatively easy to know what films to look forward to in the coming year. The indie world is a little trickier; films can often fly under the radar until they arrive on the festival circuit, without the wall-to-wall coverage of the tentpoles (although we do our best). But we're about ten days away from the Sundance Film Festival kicking off, and the indie line-up for 2012 will start to crystallize a little more.

As such, as the final part of our 2012 preview features (after our Most Anticipated, the Popcorn movies and the Foreign-Language films), we've taken a look at some of the non-studio pictures that look promising in the next twelve months. About half are on the Sundance line-up (and we've given you the dates for their showings in Utah, just in case any of y'all are heading to Park City), with another half that should reach theaters or film festivals this year. And in a world where film financing is harder than ever to get a hold of, it's heartening to see so many promising smaller-scale projects on the way. Check the list out below.

"Comes A Bright Day"
Synopsis: Two young people fall in love after being taken hostage during the robbery of a jewelery store.     
What You Need To Know: Imogen Poots had a pretty good 2011, between a supporting turn in "Jane Eyre" and a lead in "Fright Night." Craig Roberts had a pretty good 2011 too, thanks to his lead role in Richard Ayoade's "Submarine." And now, two of the brightest talents to come out of the U.K. in the last twelve months have been paired up, in an intriguingly genre-hopping picture, from debut writer-director Simon Aboud. The pair are backed up by Kevin McKidd ("Rome," "Grey's Anatomy") and veteran Timothy Spall, while costumes come from famed designed Paul Smith, so if nothing else, it'll be the best-dressed film since "A Single Man." Blending thriller, heist and romance, it's an odd little mix, but the casting has us interested enough to want to see how it all turns out.
When? May make a sales appearance in Berlin, but otherwise it'll likely turn up later in the year.

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(Image Kevin McKidd as Camron)