Electricity (15)
Starring: Agyness Deyn, Lenora CrichlowChristian CookePaul Anderson, Tom Georgeson and Alice Lowe

Directed by: Bryn Higgins

Written by: Joe Fisher (screenplay) and Ray Robinson (novel)

Genre: Drama

Electricity has been adapted from Ray Robinson’s novel about a young northern lass who suffers violent seizures due to her long term sickness with epilepsy. Not a happy story you might think and I must admit, the film doesn’t have a lot of laughs then again the subject matter deals bravely with a very serious condition.

Wandsworth Times:

The one thing that does make this story extremely watchable is the fantastic performance from newcomer and ex-model Agyness Deyn. There can be a tendency for certain people to want to see a successful ex-model fall flat on her face (although actually she does do this a few times throughout the film!) but her performance is extremely convincing and certainly pulls no punches. I met the editor of Epilepsy Today at the screening and his review of the film thought Deyn’s performance was very convincing and very accurate.

Lily O’Connor (Agyness Deyn) works in a seaside Arcade on the north east coast of England. We first meet her chatting up a customer who eventually asks her out for a date. She puts on her best ‘glad rags’ and applies her make up transforming her into a stunning young woman. They arrange to meet somewhere along the promenade but on the way to the rendezvous she feels a seizure coming on and there’s nothing she can do to stop it and she hits the floor shaking. Her potential new date is shocked and can’t get away quick enough, leaving the paramedics to pick up the pieces.

Wandsworth Times:

This incident isn’t anything knew to Lily and we notice that apart from the new cuts and bruises Lily is also carrying a mass of previous scrapes and scars. We discover that the original cause of the epilepsy she was due to her abusive Mother throwing her down the stairs as a child. Then Lily finds out that her Mother has died and her and her brothers have been left the family home in the will.

This is the opportunity to reunite with her brothers Barry (Paul Anderson) a ‘wide-boy’ and professional gambler has a tough exterior but he just wants a chance to have the closeness that they never had when they were young. And there’s Mikey (Christian Cooke) her younger brother who was always there for her when they were kids until he was taken away by social services.

The film then turns into a quest as Lily sets off for London the last place that Mikey was seen, so she can give him his inheritance and make up for lost time. Unfortunately Mickey isn’t the same little boy she remembered.

Wandsworth Times:

For a relatively small Independent film company such as Stone City Films (with the backing of BFI) the film doesn’t pull any punches and shows the audience just what some sufferers go through with the unpredictability of the seizures and the reactions of the public. There is a nice moment when Lily receives a call from a stranger enquiring after her health following one of her episodes. The young woman on the phone (Lenora Crichlow from the UK Being Human) came to Lily’s aid and wants to meet up. This is the first trustworthy person she has met in London and they strike up a unlikely friendship, the northern arcade girl and the posh yuppie. Some of the visuals are quite stunning in the hallucination scenes when Lily drifts off in one of her seizures.

As mentioned, this may not be everyone’s cup of tea but the film is well made and Agyness Deyn will certainly be in line for an award or two, possibly best newcomer?
The film also packs everything into a manageable 96 minutes running time.

Three and a half stars out of five.

In cinemas from Friday December 12, 2014.