Farming

FARMING - Lionsgate

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje directorial debut Farming is as disappointing as it is promising. Throughout the course of its one hundred minute running time, based off director Akinnuoye-Agbaje's very own upbringing, the feature flows through a thick and challenging premise with a substantially off-kilter tone that results in weak structure and balance — ultimately dampening the film overall for could have been an even stronger, hard-hitting and poignant emotional roller coaster.

Akinnuoye-Agbaje's film is undeniably dark and gritty. Its purpose of showcasing such barbaric and devastating terror, made even more haunting as it genuinely occurred, is well-executed but is utilised upon the point of oblivion. In conjunction with the structure ultimately giving away a particularly surprising twist that occurs halfway through the film, the tension and suspense of narrative direction are sadly lost. Therefore the progression feels stilted but, emotionally and narratively speaking, building to a point the audience know within the first thirty seconds. Not feeling redundant per se, but the events fall down a path of constant sadism with no emotional or suspenseful rise.

The audience is left with the entire non-cyclical plot to withstand constant visual and verbal hatred in heaps, some of which is incredibly brutal to see develop with no redeeming qualities and what seems like no hope. Kate Beckinsale turns in a tonally spontaneous and unbalanced portrayal as Ingrid Carpenter, a performance that does not stretch or feel at all fully developed or written emotionally evenhanded. Damson Idris gives it all as lead actor Enitan, a role that undoubtedly has taken many years off the young performer’s life with how brutal and cruel the material provided is. Idris showcases outstanding range in his craft. However, the material does not particularly allow the actor to showcase such on the page but suffices with a stunning physical presence.

Farming is released October 11, 2019.