The spirit of Ken Loach hangs over this surprisingly warm and rewardingly aware tale of homelessness at Christmas. Peter Mullan is very much in his element as the itinerant Hector with whom we travel to Glasgow for an ominous-sounding hospital appointment (“just some test results”), to Newcastle in search of his sister, and thence to London for a sojourn in the shelter that has become his regular Yuletide home. En route, he encounters kindness, aggression, bereavement and bewilderment, his desire to reconnect with his family tempered by the omnipresent suggestion that he is still running away from something – perhaps everything.
From Hardeep Singh Kohli’s bat-wielding shopkeeper to Sarah Solemani’s shelter manager, debut writer/director Jake Gavin paves Hector’s odyssey with encounters that prove kind hearts are indeed more than coronets. David Raedeker’s naturalistic camera work makes the most of the authentic locations (from motorway cafes to hospital toilets), with Mullan finding the heart of Hector’s character in the fastidious wash and brush-up rituals that speak volumes about his inner life.
