As a Brit I do have a soft spot for British films, especially due to the fact that 90% of the media I consume comes from America. I always enjoy watching films based in Britain, made by Brits starring Brits. Of course, this does not mean that I am blind to the negatives within British films, but it does mean that I probably give these problems more of a pass than I would American films. This is most likely the case with today's film, 'Containment' (2015). This is a very decent British indie film but there are some problems, but these are problems that may have made me dislike the film more had it been American. It is a subliminal thing and is definitely a problem I have but hey-ho what you gonna do. 'Containment' follows a group of people living in high rise flats which, due to a contagious virus, have all been locked in by mysterious people in hazmat suits. Not knowing what is going on the group start to become paranoid and suspicion and as tensions rise, arguments begin. The group start to breakdown and it becomes race to escape the tower block before they all tear eachother apart.
Going into this film I didn't really know what to expect. I knew it would be a low budget film and that meant it could go one of two ways. It was either going to be a solidly made film which had the low budget look to it, or it was going to be an absolute shitter. Thankfully it was the former. On a technical level the film is very solid. It has some very decent cinematography and the lighting and sound design is all good. The production design is also solid. It is not exactly all that visually stimulating, but it has a realness to it which fits the narrative of the film. The film does have the look of a lot of British indie films, It uses a lot of handheld cameras and stays within close quarters. But there are some really odd choices in there as well. The film for the most part is shot as a standard narrative film, but then the film decides to throw in these odd shots of almost nothing for an unknown reason. The most obvious of these is a random shot of a daddy long legs on a wall which they hold onto for 10-15 seconds. Is it meant to be symbolic? I have no idea. But it is a very odd creative choice. But on the whole the film is pretty standard across the board. The narrative is fine and is told well through the filmmaking, despite the odd choices. The main problem the film has comes with its characters.
The performances in the film are all pretty good. There isn't anyone who puts in a spectacular performance but they are good. The problem that all the actors have is in the writing of the characters they are being asked to play. The writing for all of the characters is very cliched and it leads to cliched performances. The main group of characters includes the absent father character, the aggressive thug, the bigoted old lady, the paranoid conspiracy theorist and the poorly written female character. These characters allow for the actors to put in decent performances, but it does not lead to much intrigue or empathy from the audience's point of view. It also doesn't help any kind of character development. Because the characters are cliches there is very little movement for any of them to change throughout the narrative. There is one exception to this and that comes in the form of Enid (Sheila Reid), the bigoted old lady. She goes from being quite a stand offish, outspoken lady to gaining some heart and compassion towards the group as the film progresses. But even this development happens kind of quickly and it doesn't feel all that genuine. Again, the actors all put in decent performances but the problem is that the characters are all written in a way where they are not well rounded at all.
'Containment' is a decent little film, but it is not anything to write home about. The narrative is fine and keeps your interest enough, and it is good on a technical level. There are some very odd creative decisions throughout, but for the most part it is well made. The actors all do decent jobs but they are hampered by the one dimensional writing that means that all the characters are cliched and you never feel any real connection or empathy for any of them. Would I recommend it? Yeah, why not. It is nothing special but its good enough to be worth your time, especially as it is only very short. There are better films out there which are along the same narrative lines, but this film would not be a bad choice.