Review: Trespass Against Us

An eccentric and not particularly successful hodgepodge of crime thriller and family drama, TV and music video director Adam Smith's debut feature Trespass Against Us greatly benefits from the magnetic presences of Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson, who play son and father in the film.

Gleeson is Colby Cutler, the antiauthoritarian patriarch of a ragtag crew living together in a series of trailer vans parked somewhere in the English countryside. He seems to care for very little other than ensuring that his family of vagabonds stick together. His eldest son Chad (Fassbender) is his de facto second-in-command, though it's immediately clear that this title is very much in name only. Colby is the undisputed ruler of his own domain and his word is law.

Chad, however, wants better for his own kids, particularly his son Tyson, than to become an illiterate layabout like he is. His wife Kelly (Lyndsey Marshal) isn't particularly keen on spending the rest of her life living on the margins. Chad's made plans to break away from Colby and the gang, but Colby's reputation in proper society and Colby himself are making this an increasingly difficult task for Chad to pull off. He tries to resist Colby's insistence that he pull off another smash and grab, but he's forced into it when Colby calmly jokes with Tyson that he might be part of the gang someday. Indeed, Colby's not-so-subtle indoctrination of the young, impressionable Tyson is an increasing cause of concern for Chad.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Alastair Siddons seems more concerned with establishing the colourful pungency that permeates the Cutlers' compound than crafting a focused narrative. Fassbender and Gleeson do great work in defining the complex dynamics between Chad and Colby. Fassbender, in particular, successfully conveys Chad's difficulty in reconciling the gleeful criminal with the loving father and devoted son. Chad may not be entirely of his environment, but Colby's parenting has left him with nothing but dead ends.

Trespass Against Us ends with a bizarrely tender and somewhat sentimental sequence as Chad's devotion to his son's well-being suddenly involves puppies, local cops, and a heart-to-heart on a tree. It seems out of step with the rest of the film, though of a piece with its rambling mentality.

Trespass Against Us

Directed by: Adam Smith

Written by: Alastair Siddons

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Lyndsey Marshal, Georgie Smith, Rory Kinnear, Killian Scott, Sean Harris