Reviewed by Anne Wollenberg
Stars Molly Windsor, Robert Carlyle, Susan Lynch,
Lauren Socha, Michael Socha, Kerry Stacey,
Craig Parkinson, Andrea Lowe, Karl Collins
Written by Tony Grisoni & Samantha Morton
Certification UK 12A
Runtime 106 minutes
Directed by Samantha Morton
Last time a news story broke about a child dying as a result of abuse or neglect, and the tabloids shrieked about how social workers had failed in the line of duty, did you think to yourself that if they’d only removed the child, everything would have been hunky-dory? But what happens next?
If you’ve watched too many episodes of Home and Away, or any other TV show that rose-tints the idea of foster care, you might think there’s a happy, fluffy ending to be had. Children in care are often moved, moved and moved again (we’re not talking five times, we’re talking 50). More than half leave school without a single GCSE. Children in care may be moved around the country and separated from their siblings. They are more likely to suffer from mental health problems, go to prison and/or become prostitutes. It’s only recently that the government has started to support care-leavers beyond the age of 16.
So you’ve got to marvel at the remarkable restraint shown by Samantha Morton, who makes her directorial debut with The Unloved. Morton passed through the British care system herself, not to mention the criminal justice system. While The Unloved is fiction, she has of course drawn on her own experiences and knowledge, yet has resisted the temptation to pour all of the rage, hurt and humiliation of her own life into the film. Instead, it’s astonishingly sparse – and better for it. Everything in The Unloved is shown from the perspective of Lucy (Windsor), who’s taken away from her father (Carlyle) and placed in a children’s home after he beats her for losing his cigarette money. Lucy already has a social worker, and it’s entirely possible she’s been in care before. Her parents are estranged, and Lucy wants to know why she can’t live with her mother (Lynch). So do we. It’s not an option, the social workers say.
Lucy arrives at the children’s home with nothing but her school uniform and a lifetime of hurt. Her 16-year-old roommate Lauren (Socha) introduces her to the joys of skiving and shoplifting. One of the care home workers (Parkinson) sexually abuses Lauren. Social workers discuss Lucy in confusing, rushed meetings where nobody answers her questions properly – or gives her enough time to ask them. She often seems to be watching her own life from outside. And that’s not just a director’s trick, it’s a common trait in abused children.
Originally shown on the UK's Channel 4, The Unloved is utterly bleak and sad, but it resists the temptation to resort to melodrama or clichés. Instead, subtle scenes and gestures are left to speak for themselves: Lucy hugging her father despite the way he’s treated her, the gut-wrenching scene in which Lucy asks her mother if she can stay with her. It isn’t saying that being in care is shit; instead, it’s an insight into what it feels like to pass through a system that takes hurt, confused, angry children and heaps more hurt on top.
Morton said she made this film because TV programmes about being in care never seemed realistic, and because children shouldn’t have to tell adults what it is they need. Morton’s an acclaimed actor, but what will happen to Lucy? We don’t know. The likely possibilities are mostly not nice ones. We fail the most vulnerable members of our society, and for that reason, The Unloved is not easy to watch. And why the title? Who thinks Lucy is unloved? She does, most probably, but nobody has actually asked her. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have to be. Only the stoniest-hearted could watch this unaffected.