Cuckoo (2009 film)

Cuckoo is a 2009 British thriller film starring Laura Fraser, Richard E. Grant, Tamsin Greig, Antonia Bernath and Adam F, set in London, UK. It was created, written, and directed by Richard Bracewell and produced by Richard and Tony Bracewell. The film was cast by Dan Hubbard of the Hubbard casting family and scored by Bafta-nominated composer Andrew Hewitt.

Cuckoo
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRichard Bracewell
Produced byTony Bracewell
Richard Bracewell
Written byRichard Bracewell
StarringRichard E. Grant
Laura Fraser
Tamsin Greig
Antonia Bernath
Adam F
Music byAndrew Hewitt
CinematographyMark Partridge
Edited byCraig Cotterill
Production
company
Punk Cinema
Distributed byVerve Pictures
Release date
  • 25 September 2009 (2009-09-25) (Cambridge Film Festival)
  • 17 December 2010 (2010-12-17)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Cuckoo is described as a "thriller about sounds and lies". The film tells the story of student Polly (Laura Fraser) who begins to think she is going mad as she starts to hear unexplained sounds.

Cast

Production

Cuckoo was shot on location in December 2007 and January 2008 in London and Norwich, and in a studio built in a disused grain warehouse in Yarmouth.[1] Filming locations included Berwick Street and Wardour Street in Soho in London.

Release

The premiere of Cuckoo was premiered in September 2009 at the Cambridge Film Festival, where Clive James called the film "masterly and thrilling". Other UK film festival screenings followed at the last Filmstock festival in Luton, attended by Shere Hite who called Cuckoo "gripping from beginning to end", and at Glasgow Film Festival in February 2010, after which Scottish arts magazine The Skinny wrote that the film was "as tangible a representation of a troubled mind as you are likely to encounter on film".[2]

Cuckoo was released in UK cinemas on 17 December 2010 by Verve Pictures and on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes in the UK by Verve Pictures on 28 February 2011. The discs contained an audio commentary and theatrical trailer as extras.[3]

Reviews

Cuckoo divided UK film critics sharply. As of June 2020, the film holds a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on ten reviews with an average rating of 3.4 out of 10.[4] Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph wrote "After a debut as impressive as The Gigolos, writer-director Richard Bracewell concocts a dismayingly daft script for this shoestring psychological thriller".[5] David Jenkins in Time Out commented that the film was "not particularly exciting or original, especially as it's never made quite clear what all the fuss is about".[6] Andrew Lowry in Total Film called it "well-intentioned but fairly undramatic".[7]

Positive reviews included Jason Solomons in The Mail on Sunday, who wrote: "Using dimly lit interiors and shadowy streets, Bracewell's film conjures up a clammy atmosphere, emotionally and physically. The movie feels as it is slowly strangling you. It is a skillful and confident piece of low budget film-making."

In a four-star Daily Mirror review, David Edwards wrote that the film was "an unsettling, unconventional ... quite unlike anything our film industry is pumping out these days", adding that "Fraser is superb as a woman who just might be on the verge of a nervous breakdown".[8] In a four-star Den of Geek review, Doralba Picerno wrote that Cuckoo was "a little gem of a movie ... which will keep you engrossed for its duration and get you to do a lot of thinking about it afterwards. This is independent British cinema at its best, a thought-provoking feature where there are no clear demarcations of either guilt or reality and the atmosphere is rarefied and eerie."[9]

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References
  1. "Star on Yarmouth movie set". Norfolk Daily Evening Press. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 12 December 2007.
  2. Film review by Juliet Buchan. (19 February 2010). "GFF 2010: Cuckoo". The Skinny. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  3. Nield, Anthony (28 February 2011). "Cuckoo". The Digital Fix. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  4. "Cuckoo". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  5. Robey, Tim (16 December 2010). "Cuckoo, review". The Daily Telegraph.
  6. "Cuckoo | review, synopsis, book tickets, showtimes, movie release date | Time Out London". Timeout.com. 14 December 2010. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  7. Lowry, Andrew (17 December 2010). "Cuckoo Review". TotalFilm.com. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  8. DavidEdwards (17 December 2010). "Cuckoo review - David Edwards - Mirror Online". Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  9. Den Of Geek (12 December 2010). "Cuckoo review". Den of Geek. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
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