Hector

Respect is due to everyone involved in this sincere drama about longterm homelessness. Unfortunately, worthwhile subject matter doesn’t necessarily make a great film. Peter Mullan is the film’s beating heart, as Hector, a homeless man who every year travels to a London hostel from the streets of Scotland. Wrenched by tragedy from the everyday life he once had into one he has to make the best of, he is stoic but never self-pitying.

First-time director Jake Gavin’s somewhat ploddy film turns his backstory into a stodgy family drama, and pushes the ‘poignant’ button way too hard. A subtler take on this challenging material would have served everyone a lot better.