Brit filmmaker Eadward Strong’s directorial feature is produced by his brother David and stars another …. George, who was also the co-writer … in this dark thriller that shows their obsession with old black and white movies that surface a great deal in this movie with its thunderous old-fashioned soundtrack. It’s the story of two wealthy young siblings who are enjoying the free run of their rather palatial family home near the sea in Brighton whilst their parents are vacationing abroad.
Their peaceful existence is disturbed when out of nowhere Lily (Phoebe Naughton) a rather fragile Art student brings home Finn (Andrew Mullen) something of a drifter for the weekend as her new boyfriend even though she knows little about him. However her rather caustic and somewhat jealous brother Jamie (Stocks) who is some what put out to be sharing his weekend with a stranger, makes it his purpose to find out.
When he discovers that ‘Finn’ had stolen the bag and identity of the real Finn he keeps the information hidden from his sister. He does however reveal his new-found knowledge to ‘Finn’ and he uses the information to blackmail him to satisfy his own rather morbid and sexual needs.
The first part of the story the plot unfolds at such a slow pace that it is akin to watching paint dry, but it then gets interesting and starts to really engage our attention, sadly only to flounder once more culminating weakly with a very obvious ending.
George Stokes has definitely written himself the best part (and he plays it very well) in this triangle at the expense of the other characters especially Lily who comes over as very one-dimensional.
Palace of Fun is an intriguing well made wee film and as a debut feature is full of promise as to what could follow next from the Strong Brothers.
