The Fence

"Steven" (David Perkins) tries to help his mum get by, by working for a local butcher and then flogging a few illicitly caught trout to a local restaurant now and again. The dad (Neil Berrett) is pretty much a waste of space and his brother "Andrew" (Eugene Simon) is only just out on parole - adding ... to the headaches of their mother "Sharon" (a few, brief, appearances from Sally Phillips). "Steven" is quite a decent cove as it happens, and has saved up for his dream motorbike - well, it's more of a glorified moped, really. Anyway, he buys it, takes it for a hurl, leaves it outside his house and it's pinched. The police don't care, so he and his brother decide to track it down - easily done as it happens - and that puts in train a series of rather predictable, sometimes comically violent, daft escapades as the brothers tackle the local bullies, the local kingpin and make it clear that their family is not one to be messed with. It helps that it is set in Bristol - a more genteel environment for the cast on screen here. This would not have worked in a gritty, more working class city, but here you can overlook the "posh-boy" elements of the casting and just enjoy what is a quite well written and decently directed low-budget feature. The ending is a wee bit farcical, but there's familial chemistry to be seen here and the acting, though not likely to garner a BAFTA, makes for an engaging look at a family looking out for each other. No, you won't remember it afterwards - but it is worth a watch and you're bound to recall some of the music if you were around in the eighties. read more