Review by Rodney Wilson.
I have to say, this film came as a pleasant surprise. I didn't know the director and my expectations were low! The film is based on my brother Colin's novel and he hasn't been too successful in adaptations of his work -he would have envied Grahame Green if he hadn't hated his work so much!- Colin's Space Vampires or Lifeforce were lamentable.
Now the 1960s Adrift in Soho is possibly my favorite book of Colin, so my prime concern was to see whether the film had done justice to the book.
Half-an-hour into the film, I decided to forget Colin's book. And when the character James was killed off, I had completely forgotten the book! I was convinced by then the film had an independent life to the book on which it was based. I was so enthralled by the photography -the out-of-focus '50s footage opening sequence is inspired- that I made up my mind to enjoy the film in its own right, and that came easily.
The camera shot of a first-edition of The Outsider in a Soho bookshop is all I needed to appreciate the connection to Colin. I consider myself a "film buff" but shamefully I confess to no knowledge of the Free Cinema film movement that had inspired the director. But it didn't matter.
The film evokes 1950s Soho as atmospherically as anyone could have wished, and the eccentric Soho types didn't disappoint. Colin's book explores the nature of freedom, and to that extent the film was true to the book, as well as following the storyline to a recognizable extent. I felt the film was a valiant effort to capture an era that is now gone, and gone for good. That is no mean achievement. I thank the director for the experience, and shall follow his career with an interest I certainly didn't have before I saw the film. Well done. Rodney Wilson.
