Ragged, unpredictable and improvisational in feel, Mercedes Grower’s film is a two-part collage of London relationships. The twist is that we get to see part two, the messy break ups, before the brighter, more optimistic early days. As with all multi-stranded movies, Brakes is wildly inconsistent. Some of it – the mortifying scenes featuring the brilliant Julia Davis, for example, or the hollow sense of loss in Kerry Fox’s sequence – is rather wonderful. Other strands seem under-developed, as if nobody bothered to agree on the characters’ back stories. If nothing else, it’s worth watching for the who’s who of Brit comedy talent involved: along with Davis, the film features Steve Oram, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt.
