‘I sometimes try to astral project myself into her bedroom…’
Ken Loach is such an important director because he combines social realism with working class authenticity in a way that is compelling and captivating. Trying to direct a story that takes place in a northern, working class community is fraught with danger. It’s tough to find a balance between depicting something that feels real without accidentally wandering into condescension. Pond Life is occasionally heartfelt and endearing, but too often it offers up a version of life in northern England that just doesn’t ring true…
Set in South Yorkshire in the ’90s, Pond Life follows an ensemble cast featuring Tom Varey, Sally Lindsay and Daisy Edgar-Jones as they attempt to capture a legendary giant carp that may or may not exist.
Considering the place and time, you would think that Pond Life would have something to say about life in a region still very much scarred from the closure of the mines in the ’80s (and into the ’90s). You might also think that the film could have something to say about the socio-economic conditions of a region that was on the verge of being further decimated by immigration and a looming financial crisis. Director Bill Buckhurst, working from Richard Cameron’s screenplay, never reckons with any of this, instead delivering a gentle dramedy where the stakes are low and the sentimentality is high. While Edgar-Jones is a fine actor, do we really need another posh, boarding school girl from London playing a working class teenager from the north? Luckily, Richard Hawley’s gorgeous score provides the kind of authenticity missing from the narrative and some of the performances.
Pond Life is not a bad film, but it’s a film with nothing to say. I grew up in some of the shooting locations featured here, and while it is thrilling to see such a forgotten location on the big screen, this still feels like a missed opportunity.
