A deadpan romance is at the heart of Frank Aboud’s debut film Comes A Bright Day
We don’t seem to cherish home grown films enough. Outside London, with multiplexes filling screen after screen with the same US blockbusters there is little space for smaller UK movies and even in the capital they are often restricted to a week at a film festival or in an obscure cinema. Combined with more modest promotional means, many ventures disappear without trace. There is also the issue of people believing all British films are grimy, gangster packed, gritty and humourless, a notion some filmmakers seem determined to nurture for credibility’s sake. Odder still is when a UK film does make a commercial breakthrough it is compared to US successes as if we can’t think of our own ideas. Comes A Bright Day, released to buy this week after only a limited big screen outing last month does not slip easily into handy categories. The debut of writer / director Frank Aboud, you could call it a heist movie, a black comedy or a romance – it’s all of these things yet more. It’s not perfect but in its own way is a quiet triumph.
