In his interviews, Norris focused on the pressure of the environment, pressuring the inhabitants to strive for a better and safer life, that is, a call to selfishness. Maybe that’s why we don’t see a single happy family in the picture. No exception, and the family of respectable lawyer Archie. Tim Roth’s chaotic personal life is disturbed by his 11-year-old daughter Skunk, an incredibly kind and open soul desperate to soak up the dirt of her surroundings.
Her growing up as one of the lines of the film and accompanies the pressure of selfishness, resulting in pressure, seemingly of a completely different kind. Surprisingly, all the conflicts in the film stem from the sexual problems of their participants. "Pervert!" "Frigid bitch!" For some reason, another muzzle comes after such words. Sincerely wishing everyone a normal and happy life, Skunk bitterly watches his father’s affair with young Kasia and the sex of his older brother with a dissolute girl. “I just don’t understand why people do this,” the girl says with bewilderment, fully aware that such actions easily break fates, and no one becomes happier from such behavior.
The sober look of the child at the society of adults, beating in convulsions of instincts, hangs in the mind of the viewer with a long tragic note. But the sociability and optimism of Skunk, whose character was brilliantly embodied by Eluise Lawrence, fortunately, does not reduce the film to the abyss of melancholy. The kindness of the girl, who without hesitation takes the side of the weak, animates the space of the film, giving it a dynamic of fighting vices as an everyday and invisible evil.
9 out of 10
Original