Black Pond

The return of shamed TV star Chris Langham (pictured) to the screen might not set the world of cinema alight, but there’s no faulting his performance in this peculiar, awkward, at times stirringly poetic indie drama. ‘Black Pond’ is part media-skewering tabloid mock-doc about the fallout from a mysterious family tragedy, and part intimate portrait of middle-aged, middle-class lives in transition. Miserable suburban couple Tom and Sophie Thompson (Langham and Amanda Hadingue) live their lives in a state of permanent spite. When a strange, perhaps deranged man, Blake (Colin Hurley), decides to follow Tom home, the Thompsons are forced to confront the true emptiness of their lives. ‘Black Pond’ is not entirely successful – it’s structurally uneven, occasionally forced in its weirdness and features a deeply uncomfortable cameo from TV’s lost boy Simon Amstell. But in its quieter moments, such as the sweet interplay between Langham and Hurley, the film achieves a striking, unique tone of acutely observed bourgeois melancholy.