Nice directing debut from Karen Gillan

This is a really nice debut by a young director that shows a capable handling of mature issues like suicide, substances abuse, family relationships, sex etc well beyond her years.

Her character Lucy has been living in another ‘drunken dimension’ of binge drinking, casual sex with strangers and late night stagger homes after a visit to the chip shop. All this a result of losing her closest friend, Alistair, who committed suicide despite all her efforts at prevention.

At times you see the pleasantness around her: the scenic city Inverness, her watching the nice family moments of her neighbors through their window at night contrasting her family situation where each member seems isolated.

But other characters eventually to begin to ground her back into a more normal lifestyle. She has a small relationship with a traveler also dealing with family misfortune who she comforts at the same site where she lost her first friend. The same site she will later visit contemplating her own plight.

Through the film she also has been helped by a therapeutic relationship with an elderly man calling her home mistaking it for the crisis hotline. The caller further restores her sense of humanity and tells her it is time to ‘wake up ‘ from this alternate dimension she is living in. A very clever reveal of the caller’s actual identity occurs soon after.

She ultimately brings closure to her grief and delights to see her parents talking to each other again through the window as she arrives home one night and goes in and joins the conversation.

A pretty good resolution story told overall and some outrageous moments, mainly involving Lucy, also add an amusing element of humor.