DVD
Stella Does Tricks

Starring: Kelly Macdonald, James Bolam, Hans Matheson and Ewan Stewart
Fabulous Films & Fremantle Home Entertainment

RRP: £12.99
FHED1895
Certificate: 18
Available 12 September 2005


Stella is a young prostitute who finally decides to try and leave the life behind. However Mr Peters, her pimp, has her gang raped as an example to the rest of the girls. She flees London and travels back to her home in Glasgow, but can Eddie her boyfriend keep off the drugs? Can Stella face the reasons why she left in the first place? Stella's journey to freedom is fraught with betrayal, but can anyone really find any freedom except from within themselves...?

Kelly Macdonald is superb in the role of Stella, whose character is not unlike the wayward Diane that she played in Trainspotting - though Stella is far more disenfranchised and brutalised by her life on the streets, where random acts of violence towards prostitutes goes unnoticed. She conveys beautifully Stella's duality, the hardened outer shell which contains and protects the last of her own innate innocence, an innocence stolen by her father's sexual abuse. Her final solution to her entrapment is sad but understandable.

James Bolam plays the very creepy pimp, come sugar daddy, Mr Peters, who farms out Stella to her clients. Bolam, of course, has an acting resume as long as your arm, being just as comfortable in comedy rolls as drama, though I don't think that I have seen him play such a psychopath before. He conveys the outward respectability of an upper middle class business man who is rotten to the core. Rotten, as he makes his living from the sexual degradation of young girls.

The rest of the players do just as convincing a job at portraying their individual characters. It's worth looking out for Andy Serkis (Gollum himself). He plays Fitz, a violent low life - though most of his shots are quite dark making it hard to make him out.

The film is shot in a way that brings beauty to some of the most ordinary sequences. I especially liked the swimming pool scene, which whilst short conveys the beauty that Stella hides from the world.

If you're looking for a salacious slice of life you're looking in the wrong place. The film is harrowing in its grittiness. It does not go for the easy or cheap shot of showing what it is that Stella does to survive. The sex is always implied, which makes the scenes all the more powerful, as the watcher has to rely on their imagination - thereby making them an active participant, rather than a voyeur, in Stella's degradation. This can make for some very uncomfortable viewing. The film is as much about duality, each character having a public persona which acts like a veneer to hide the real inner personality.

The print isn't perfect, with obvious artefacts and quite a damaged first couple of minutes. Sound is stereo but clear. Extras are restricted to a photo gallery and the more interesting and informative biographies section.

Stella is not an easy watch, but if you like walking on a darkly wild side then this could be for you.

Charles Packer

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£9.74 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
£9.99 (Blahdvd.com)
   
£9.99 (Moviemail-online.co.uk)

All prices correct at time of going to press.