Mysterious Creatures

Mysterious Creatures is a 2006 British Indie drama, directed by David Evans, and starring Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn and Rebekah Staton. It is a true story of a married couple struggling to cope with the demands of their daughter who suffers from Aspergers Syndrome.

Mysterious Creatures
Promotional movie poster
Directed byDavid Evans
Produced byJoey Attawia
James Burstall
Julie Clark
Amanda Jenks
Jake Lushington
Written byGwyneth Hughes
StarringTimothy Spall
Brenda Blethyn
Rebekah Staton
Music byMalcolm Lindsay
CinematographyMatt Gray
Edited byPia Di Ciaula
Distributed byITV
Release date
29 October 2006
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£700,000

Plot

It is November 2004, and Bill and Wendy Ainscow are struggling to cope with Social Services' neglect of their daughter, in her 30s and who is autistic. In a desperate attempt to escape, they posted a suicide note to a newspaper and ingested a variety of sleeping pills, walking together into the ocean in the hopes of committing suicide. On this tragic day, Bill lost his life, however Wendy was rescued, leading her to live her life caring for her daughter alone, with no state help, leading her to a second suicide attempt.

The struggles came from the fact that Social Services refused to help lonely, naïve Lisa with social skills so she may get living life with people (friends and a lover). They outrageously claimed she didn't need such help. Lisa had an addiction to spending money which her parents didn't have on designer shoes and cuddly toys, which would lead to violent outbursts if her demands were not met. Bill had also previously been in prison for stealing £50,000 to pay for his daughter's obsessions.

After the second suicide attempt, both women went on to live the rest of their lives, albeit apart.

Cast
  • Timothy Spall as Bill Ainscow
  • Brenda Blethyn as Wendy Ainscow
  • Rebekah Staton as Lisa Ainscow
  • Judy Flynn as Anne Buckley
  • David Crellin as David Kirwan
  • Stephen Boxer as Martyn Bowler
  • Mark Penfold as Judge Bryn
  • James Curran as Mr. Justice Mitchell
  • Joanna Phillips-Lane as Julie Kirwan
  • Alastair Galbraith as Dr. David Yorke

Production

The film was shot on location in London, United Kingdom and Los Cristianos, Spain.

Critical reception

Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes have so far all been favourable, however as this is an Indie movie, no professional reviews exist yet.

Accuracy of events

Both Lisa and Wendy were interviewed in depth by the writers beforehand to gain a thorough understanding of the events leading up to Bill's suicide and the following events. Wendy has since seen the movie, and was reportedly very moved by the depiction, however Lisa has declined to see the previews when offered.[1]

gollark: If I can somehow fit a CC emulator (or code to decompress one, or download it from the web...) into 4KB, it'd make a great EEProm.
gollark: By providing implementations for literally every java-side API.
gollark: Because fully emulating CC is *probably* about as easy as making potatOS work.
gollark: jake, try the `exorcise` command on a file.
gollark: That's the idea.

References
  1. "Mysterious Creatures is a tale of family tragedy". Manchester Evening News. 17 April 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
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