Nightingale

It's a one man, one location show...literally, David Oyelowo does Peter Snowden.

You'll either 'love' it or hate it...two minds are at play throughout. The virtuosity of the performance is - perhaps - constrained by an overworked script. The closeted confines of the location dis-enable an investigation into the paths of socio and psycho...

Rather being a voyeuristic study into madness...this is its - weirdly rational - aftermath. The film starts after his murder of his mother...it's a territorial act. For Snowden wants to 'entertain' his old army friend alone in the home that he pays for and his bible-bashing mother forbids anything of that sort going on under her roof. Goodbye mumsie.

So...there's really only one way the story can go. Wrong. This is not a descent into the darkness...far from it. This is going to be a party. You can almost hear his inner voice screaming the distant echoes of: Free at last! Free at last!

Indeed...Peter Snowden has a dream. That dream is within in his sights...but, the biggest obstacle is not: his sister, the church, the wife...it's himself.

We can only guess as to how Snowden gets to this point in his life...by oppression - ultimately, by the church...by way of his mother. A mighty powerful and under-stated statement...the damage the church does...

Oppression accumualtes within a person rather than disintegrates that person...there is no grand tsunami of irrationality here...this is as methodical and manipulative as a spoiled brat getting their own way. Oyelowo does 'brat' incisively well.

The weakness is - perhaps - it all seems a little too calculated, too clinical, too constrained. Oyelowo is extraordinary...but, like clipped wings, is denied full artistic freedom. Sometimes, yes, less is more...but, sometimes the Grand Guignol should be allowed to run free...hysterically screaming: Free at last! Free at last!

Trailer...