WEEKEND Cert. 18, 96 mins
starring Tom Cullen, Chris New

The Times 04/11/2011
review by Kate Muir:

WEEKEND is one of the most unexpectedly adorable romances I've seen. The relationship begins upside down, when two strangers find themselves in bed the morning after a drunken pick-up in a Nottingham club.

Knowing nothing of each other, except physically, the young men are embarrassed and jokey, but in the next 24 strangely delirious hours they reveal themselves to us in a tender and witty dialogue.

The performances are convincing, as is the chemistry between Tom Cullen as Glen, a student artist, and Chris New as Russell, a lifeguard. Glen offers Russell a chance to tape-record his opinion of their one-night stand for an art project; it would appear that Russell is one of the lucky many. But when Russell finishes work - including lunch with porn-pushing hetero colleagues - Glen is waiting. They ride home together on a bike to the privacy of Russell's flat in a concrete tower.

Written and directed by Andrew Haigh, the story reveals how each man came out - one when his mother caught him watching Rupert Graves naked in A ROOM WITH A VIEW. Occasionally, the film ventures into overly obvious gay politics, but this funny, dirty, sensual relationship fascinates with universals of anger, fear of commitment and past damage.

WEEKEND was made for £100,000 in 17 days and has picked up audience awards at three festivals. Cullen was nominated this week as Most Promising Actor in the British Independent Film Awards.

Daily Telegraph 04/11/2011
review by Tim Robey:

Twentysomething Russell (Tom Cullen) lives, alone and a bit dolefully, on the 14th floor of a Nottingham high-rise. He works as a lifeguard at the local pool and drags himself out one Friday night to dinner with friends, but his heart's not in it. He's gay and looking for companionship, which he finds at a club later on, clapping eyes on Glen (Chris New). They go back to Russell's. Relationships start this way everywhere in the developed world every day. They end this way, too.

The film is WEEKEND, written, directed and edited by Andrew Haigh, and it's nakedly truthful but also graceful in its construction. We wake up for morning coffee and piece together a night of unseen drunken sex. Only once we've got to know these two better does the film itself gain their intimacy, giving us long, tender, funny scenes of flirting and pillow talk. When they fool around again, it's emotionally tense.

The actors, both newcomers to film, create remarkably complete, distinct people who crackle in each other's company. Russell, played with such vulnerability and detail by Cullen, is a dreamy orphan, only out to his closest friends, and too embarrassed to tell them about his love life.

Glen is angrier, more extrovert but hardly less troubled: New has hilarious timing, but he's far too smart an actor to showboat or just go for queeny laughs.

Haigh's film is written with a shrewd, unpretentious feel for the way young people behave when they're getting to know each other, shot with a keen eye for urban solitude, and completely nails its seemingly modest tasks: frank talk about the challenges and politics of growing up gay, which never underlines itself or comes crashing down on us as a message.

It could all be beautifully thought out and still not work without the chemistry and ignition the actors provide. They're so persuasive as a couple that the future - which poses one huge problem - quivers as they discuss it. Their bond hangs in the balance, but the film's pure human warmth radiates long after you've left.


Telegraph rating *****