Hector
Go! A real Christmas movie.
Homeless man's Christmas voyage south.
Christmas is a dichotomous proposition; which is not a type of dinosaur, but a divergent clash of ideas: indulgence and gluttony versus giving and generosity. Abject selfishness competing with grand gestures of selflessness. It’s a contest between bellicose bellies and helpful hearts, with John Lewis the inevitable winner, either way. That said, whatever our intentions might be, those in more strained social and financial circumstances still tend to slip to the back of our thoughts. Christmas movies don’t help – most are about having a magical time in a world of raging decadence. Yuletide hardship gets left out in the snowy cold.
This festive season, Hector wakes up on our doorstep as a Christmas film with atypical roughness. It follows gentle, white-bearded, homeless Scot, Hector (Peter Mullan; Sunset Song, Tyrannosaur) as he makes his way on a traditional annual pilgrimage from Glasgow to London. His aim is Christmas Dinner at a familiar homeless shelter with familiar faces, but a gammy leg, no accommodation and cold weather turn a simple journey into an expedition fraught with obstacles. His increasingly fragile health not only threatens his very survival, but also presses him to reconnect with his estranged brother and sister for the first time in 15 years. The emotional complication of renewing links with family adds further to his trials, but also offers the potential for a level of redemption.
Christmas or not, Hector is an unusual film of real grit. It is a stripped back, concrete symphony of motorways, petrol stations, lorry parks and corrugated, industrial warehouses. Normally, these dull grey aspects of life rarely make it to the silver screen, but director Jake Gavin plants it front and centre, virtually making it a buddy movie between Hector and the environment he is travelling in. The bleakness of Hector’s situation is inescapable, giving us a moving taste of what it would feel like to be in his place. It is about loneliness and social ostracision more than it is a tale of homelessness in itself; although the struggle of living without shelter is both honest and ever-present. The difficulties of the characters are married with their humility and fear, and tactfully contrasted by the kindness of bystanders that is eventually given when the difficulties become most acute (or the hard-faced consequences when it is not). As Hector’s situation develops and his history is revealed, it becomes an increasingly heart-wrenching story, but maintains an essential, slight, glimmer of hope to keep the audience involved.
Given that it is a pleasingly concise film (running to 89 minutes) with a compact script, it is Mullan’s profoundly penetrative performance that transports us down the M6 and into Hector’s life. He expertly conveys the heavy exhaustion of his character’s life, rather than relying on plain sadness. The dull ache of his merely having to carry on for another day, or even take another step is constantly visible on his weathered expression. It is interrupted only by moments of warm, dry relief and the occasional, brief flicker of joy. Mullan embodies a dry wit and hardy resilience that Scots are renowned for, but a crucial part of the film’s strength is its acknowledgment through the varied ensemble of other characters that homelessness is a nebulous concept. It reinforces that Hector is simply the humble, highly believable and poignant story of one man, not an attempt to define all lives lived on the street.
So go. It is a film with genuine meaning, featuring a typically compelling performance from Mullan, and is an especially worthwhile watch at this time of year. Ho-ho-homlessness it most certainly is not.
So go. It is a film with genuine meaning, featuring a typically compelling performance from Mullan, and is an especially worthwhile watch at this time of year. Ho-ho-homlessness it most certainly is not.
#hectorfilm #hector #petermullan #cinema #newreleases #moviereview #filmreview #movies #films #godontgo