Leon Lopez / UK / 2014 / 87 mins

Available on DVD from Mon 09 Nov 2015

Jane’s 22-year-old brother David (Jonny Labey) is sleeping with her husband, Jules (Daniel Brocklebank). ‘Love is magical,’ says David who firmly believes that ‘if you want something bad enough, it’ll wait for you.’ David is a dancer who is just heard he’s got into dance school and has to leave town. Jules loves his wife, but lusts after the man with whom he has been having a two-year affair. He is shocked, jealous and hurt that David is going.

This melodramatic love triangle is all set in an uncharacteristically sunny Liverpool. David deals with Jules’s reaction and these modern-day family complications with a quick, methadone-fuelled one night stand with Sam (Craig Stein). A hiccup over who did what and whether a condom was used adds an extra layer of complexity. Meanwhile David and Sam have an impetuous whirlwind romance and suddenly marriage is on the cards, with the proviso of a prenuptial HIV test. Then – oh Gawd – Jane (Suzanne Collins) invites David and Sam to dinner en famille. The increasingly lustful Jules, demented with jealousy, storms off. Will love conquer all?

This micro-budget drama (background extras are clearly a luxury it couldn’t afford) is very much a chamber piece. It has a strong cast which is sadly lumbered with dialogue that relies too often on well-worn clichés. Jonny Labey (who looks like the young Nureyev) as David is superb and carries most of the storyline.

Writer and director Leon Lopez keeps the plot boiling, but everything teeters perilously close to Soapland (many of the personnel have soap antecedents). He keeps the camera moving and the action fairly barrels along, helped with a bouncy pop soundtrack. But I wasn’t fully convinced by Jane’s reaction to life-changing news. It’s a powerful little film that doesn’t live up to its full potential.