Have just been to see this at my local Picture House. What a thoroughly satisfying experience it is. A simple tale, told in a no-nonsense, non-exploitative way.
The two central performances (Derren Nesbitt as Jackie and Jordan Stephens as Faith) are utterly believable from beginning to end: no off-the-shelf 2-dimensional character tropes here, just REAL human beings dealing with REAL life.
Because of its subject matter, there is plenty of potential in this story for things to get horribly mawkish, but they don't. Yes, there are moments of intense emotion (take a packet of tissues with you - you'll need 'em), but the drama always steers just the right side of good taste on that score - i.e. genuine emotional power, yes - sentimentality, no.
Another thing I really appreciated was the way in which the growing dynamic between the two was portrayed. Writer/Director Jamie Patterson skilfully avoids trotting out the old cliché of "they can't stand each other to begin with, but learn to love each other - awww, bless". Nope: in this film, the interaction between the two is completely believable from the get-go. This, for me, is the main thing that makes this story so satisfying.
Other thoughts: nice to see a story in which a hetero cross-dressing character is treated with respect, at a time when society as a whole seems to have almost forgotten such people exist!
The only aspect of the script that left me a bit perplexed is this: at the start of the film, Faith tells us that they are gender non-binary: i.e.they don't regard themself as being either exclusively male or female. I was surprised, therefore, that throughout the whole story, Faith seemed entirely happy to be referred to by everyone as "He". I would have expected Faith's preferred pronoun to be "they". At one point in the story, the nightclub MC was seen doing a whole comedy routine about societal attitides to "new" pronouns, so this detail struck me as anomalous.
Other than that, though, I have nothing but praise for this small but damn-near-perfect gem of a movie.
