Detainment

Greetings again from the darkness. Evil personified. That is the only possible way to describe 10 year old boys Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. In February 1993, the British boys skipped school and spent the day doing typically mischievous activities around the local shopping center. Typical that is until they abducted 2 year old James Bulger.

This is writer-director Vincent Lambe's 4th short film, and it's based on the disturbingly true story of the abduction-torture-murder of toddler James by the two young boys. The film draws directly from the actual tapes of interviews/interrogations once the boys were identified from the grainy security footage. This dramatization includes the pleas of innocence from the boys, as well as the reactions of both their parents and the police officers. The scenes depicting the questioning of the boys is powerful, and the scenes of the 3 boys together is more than most of us can bear, despite little of the crime being shown (thankfully).

Young actors Ely Solan (Jon) and Leon Hughes (Robert) are both extraordinary in their performances. Director Lambe deftly applies judgment in what is shown on screen and what instead corrupts our thoughts. It's heart-breaking to see what the parents of these boys must endure, but it's beyond our comprehension to imagine what Baby James Bulger's parents must have endured. The boys were tried as adults in 1993, and both subsequently released from incarceration and given assumed identities for their own protection. If somehow Lambe's short film isn't disturbing enough, it's pretty simple to get the full report of what the boys inflicted on that poor child. Evil personified.

I felt guilty watching this as I know that Denise Bulger, the mother of the murdered toddler, was so upset at its being released. This short film was excellently done and, if anything, brings James's story back up to people. May his memory be eternal.

The young actors did phenomenal jobs. If you want an example of an excellent child actor, watch this. I cannot wait to see them in feature-length films in the future.

There are some events in history that creative minds very rarely go near. This is particularly true of murders so shocking and horrifying that most empathetic folk react only with the rawest of emotions. The Moors Murders committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and the serial murders of Fred & Rose West have both been dramatised for crime tv shows such as Deadly Women and Crimes That Shook Britain but very rarely adapted to film. Whether it's out of respect for the victims' families, an inability to create something meaningful or some other reason there are some crimes that are left untouched by film. One such murder case that up until now remained away from the big screen is the murder of Jamie Bulger, a toddler who was brutally murdered by two 10 year old boys Robert Thompson & Jon Venebles after they snatched him from a butcher's shop. The case caused a massive debate over the treatment of youth offenders who commit serious crimes and sickened Britain. Making a film about this topic 25 years on runs the risk of being divisive at best and in supreme bad taste at worst. Detainment manages to avoid both.

Detainment is a film that is based solely on the transcripts and Police interviews conducted with Venebles and Thompson. It's a 30 minute short film that not only shows the boys in interview but glimpses of their accounts dramatised for us to see the lead up to the murder. The team behind Detainment do a superb job of casting everyone involved in the interviews especially Thompson (played by Leon Hughes) and Venebles (played by Ely Solan.) Every performance is painfully precise in portraying every character as authentically as possible. There are no over dramatised evil moments from either murderer: like with the real interviews themselves, the behaviour of each boy speaks volumes on their own. Detainment shows the bare facts of the case without hyperbole. The interview rooms are bare and lit in the most basic of ways with no stand out colours to distract from the narrative at hand. It shows as much as it legally can without being a gratuitous gore fest.

The film achieves everything it sets out to: it's effective, it tells the story very well and it's structure is solid from beginning to end. In every respect it is a brilliant short film. Regardless of that, it is a very difficult watch and one of the hardest films to review personally. It's been a quarter of a decade and the mere mention of the case can still instigate very emotionally driven reactions. I was only 5 months older than Bulger when he died and it was a case that caused my Mother - like many parents of that day - to be ever more vigilant with myself & my siblings. Detainment is a confronting movie by the very nature of its subject matter which makes it incredibly difficult to recommend to anyone to watch.

Showing that psychologically challenging topics can be shown on screen without being tasteless and the need for embellishment, Detainment is a well constructed but difficult watch.

Chilling and disturbing short film on the murder of James Bulger. Based on actual interviews the film depicts the narration of the 10 year old murderers as they were interrogated by the police. The lies, confusion and tragedy are grippingly portrayed as the child psychopaths are eventually brought to justice. Good directing and stellar acting especially by the young actors portraying the killers make this one of the standout shorts. The only flaw of the movie is the horrid details of the crime are not fully touched on leaving the film wanting and hanging as to the gravity of the crime and what makes it one of the most horrendous in history. Dark and unforgettable, "Detainment" is a glimpse of evil on earth and the all too painful reality of it.

First off, these two child actors were phenomenal. I hope that-- if they are aware of the controversy around this movie-- none of it falls on them. I wish them the best of luck with their acting careers.

What to do with this movie? As with most true crime, there's always an ethical question lingering in the background of whether it was worth it to tell this story for an audience to consume it. This case was unique in that these two kids were tried as adults, and if you were to only ever see that on paper, you'd probably have a lot of questions, or you'd probably dismiss everyone involved as monsters.

And that's what feels like the question proposed to you, the audience; are these kids monsters and horrible people?

My answer is: yeah. I did not have much empathy for them. They both knew what they were doing in this tragedy, so they both need to pay the price. It's a story of those terrible fringe, edge cases where the parties involved fall right on the inner outlines of crime and punishment, and we get to examine what happens to people like them. What factors were involved, what their mentality was, what the crime was, etc..

While others touch on the point that little-to-no-attention was given to the victim or his family, to me it feels like the whole movie did: with the flashbacks in place and the alluding to how many people could've stepped in to do something about this, it feels like the victim's story was turned into a message of awareness: be aware if your kids are exhibiting this type of behavior, be aware if they are hanging out with others doing these types of things, be aware that this exists, because if you don't, we might lose another child.

I hope the worst is behind Denise. I hope these two boys seek help. And may James Bulger rest in peace.