Hallam Foe is one of the best of the 1960s wave of British films which made
a separate genre out of the tragic yet madcap antics of mentally ill young
men. I can't remember exactly, but I think it came in between Billy Liar and
Morgan.
Wait a second. That chick from Mallrats is in it, and she hadn't even been
born in 1965.
What the heck?
Oh, sorry. This excellent 1965 film was actually made in 2007! My bad. I
missed a few years on my calendar. I was never any good at tearing those days
off when they pass.
And Claire Forlani is playing the guy's beautiful but wicked,
scheming stepmother? Claire Forlani is Joan Collins now? Wow. I really did
miss a few years along the way.
Hallam is a troubled 17-year-old who took to living in a high treehouse when his mother died,
murdered - or so he thinks - by his step-mother. One wall of the treehouse
contains a giant photo enlargement of mom, fronted by candles, incense, and
the other accoutrements of shrinehood. From his lofty arboreal vantage point
Hallam engages in his two favorite activities: peeping on people with his
binoculars, and swinging down from the tree half-naked while wearing a badger
on his head.
Needless to say, relations between his father and stepmother are somewhat
strained by the constant accusations that stepmom killed mom, and that strain
is stretched to the breaking point when Hallam and stepmom have sex in the
treehouse. His rich dad kicks Hallam out of their country estate. The boy
migrates to London where he takes up life as a homeless person. Nothing in
life seems to
motivate him until he sees a pretty woman who looks exactly like his dead
mother. He stalks her and, when she turns out to be in the middle management
of a hotel, cajoles a busboy job from her. Given the rather poor pay for
17-year-old busboys and the rather high costs of life in London, he makes a
home by nesting inside the clock-tower of the hotel, a roost which also turns out to
be ideal for his avocation as a Peeping Tom. Conveniently, the mom look-alike
lives nearby, and Hallam can spy on her. Eventually he becomes more daring and
scampers across the roofs until he can actually watch his surrogate mom from her own
skylight. He even watches her having sex. The married slimebag she's sleeping
with finds out that Hallam is watching, so he gives her an extra vigorous and
dominant rogering, then looks up at Hallam to show the lad that he's aware of
him. Eventually Hallam will also end up in a sexual relationship with the
look-alike mom, and that doesn't go too badly until she finds out (in a rather
dramatic fashion) about the peeping. She's also not too thrilled with the fact
that when the lad is with her he thinks he's fucking his dead mom. Those elements put kind of a damper
on the romance ...
... but Hallam needs to achieve at least a measure of reconciliation with her, and with his
father.
The kid from Billy Elliott, now pretty much
grown (he's actually 21, but his character turns 18 in the film), does a good job at
negotiating the balance between the a crazed stalking of a dangerous man and
the
troubled obsession of one who is ultimately a good person. We neither
like nor hate him, but somehow find ourselves engaged in his life anyway, and
that indicates the the screenwriter really created some interesting characters
and situations. If you really miss those 1960s British dramedies
about lovably quixotic loonies, this film will provide some excellent faux
nostalgia.
