High Tide

This is an imperfect but often impressive Wales-set low-budget debut feature from British filmmakers James Gillingham and Jimmy Hay – worth catching just for a controlled, compelling performance from ‘Gavin & Stacey’ actress Melanie Walters. She plays Bethan, who forces her teenage son Josh (Sam Davies) to skip school and join her for a heart-to-heart while walking along the windy Gower coastline.

Dramatically, it’s a little bumpy and uneven in tone, but there are some penetrating truths here as mother and son discuss their stormy relationship – and, crucially, their individual relationships with an off-camera dad and husband. There are false notes, and moments when the filmmakers’ ambitions run up against their experience.

But this is a mature, thoughtful story, grounded in Walters’s intelligent understanding of the woman she plays: vulnerable, restrained but finally taking difficult matters into her own hands.