Silver Haze: Film Review
After her impressive debut in Sacha Polak‘s Dirty God, Vicky Knight has reunited with the director for her new feature Silver Haze.
In this intimate drama, Knight plays Franky, a 23-year-old nurse who is covered in scars after an arson attack on a pub 15 years earlier. She is still trying to get to the bottom of what happened during that traumatic event and this has put a strain on her life and her relationships. That changes when Franky falls for Florence (Esme Creed-Miles), one of her patients, and escapes her tumultuous home in London to find solace with Florence’s supportive family on the coast.
Knight, a non-professional actor who primarily works as a healthcare assistant, gives another raw, realistic and lived-in performance here. She is so natural that you feel like you’re watching a real person instead of a character. Her performance is all the more staggering when you learn the story is based on her own experience; her dialogue must have hit really close to home.
Silver Haze presents an authentic and gritty depiction of working-class life in the UK but I did sometimes struggle with all the arguing and fighting between the relatives. I also found it difficult to understand Florence and her ever-changing mind. Thankfully, the film gave me others to hold on to: Angela Bruce as Florence’s kind and warm foster mum Alice and Knight’s actual sister Charlotte Knight as Franky’s understanding sister Leah. They offer Franky a sense of light, hope, love and support.
Silver Haze didn’t fully engage me throughout its runtime but I cannot deny the strength of the performances.
In cinemas now