STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Kayla (Aimee Kelly) has moved with her older sister from Newcastle to a rough area of South London after the death of their mother. After finding herself hassled on the top deck of a bus by a couple of lads, a rough girl gang at the back, lead by Hannah (Lily Loveless) come to her aid. Needing new friends and naturally wanting to belong, Hannah tries to fall in with this group after completing an initiation. However, when her sister is brutally murdered by vicious local gang lord Trey (Ashley Walters) it sets her on her own course of retribution that could have deadly consequences.
On the surface, Sket does everything it says on the tin. It sets out to tell a very unpleasant, depressing story, shot in as drained and grainy a way as it can, with nothing in the way of humour or light (save for an unintentional gut buster in which a portly henchman gives chase to Hannah only to comically run out of breath) with an obligatory pumping urban grime soundtrack blasting over it all, and this is exactly what it does. To criticise it for this would be akin to criticising the pope for being catholic. Sadly, Nirpal Bhogal's latest addition to the ever increasing 'chav' film staple from the Revolver Entertainment chain line that's been doing the rounds since Kidulthood can be complained about for more things than this.
It's got all the superficial stuff right, sadly the stuff under the surface lets the film down, with some very poorly written, unconvincing character development and a flimsy, weak story that fails to properly develop into anything and is equally poorly written. Running at under an hour and a half, it's run out of steam long before it's over. Kelly's lead character fails to convince as a shy girl who suddenly turns into a hard nut, even after her sister's killed, while Walters's constantly angry, aggressive villain is really no great stretch for him.
It's a shame, since if this had just been a bit better written, it could have really delivered all it's raw, unflinching potential. **
