The Toll (2021-08-05)
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Overview
Directed By: Ryan Andrew Hooper
Star Cast: Michael Smiley , Annes Elwy , Gary Beadle , Iwan Rheon ,
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CinemaSerf
Now I'm usually a fan of Welsh movies. They usually excel at making me laugh, and at not taking themselves at all seriously. Well this one - not so much! Michael Smiley ("Brendan") mans a remote toll port-a-cabin in west Wales where he is lucky to see three or four cars per day. Why would anyone want such a dull job? Well local police officer "Catrin" (Annes Elwy) arrives at his booth one night and he proceeds to explain all about his somewhat dodgy criminal past, and soon we are immersed in a retrospective style feature involving kidnapping, murder and the theft of some iDrops! The comedic elements, and there are some, raise a smile for a few minutes but that doesn't sustain 80 minutes as the film quite quickly runs out of steam. Iwan Rheon is underused, and the soundtrack offers us hope of an ending that simply doesn't deliver. The dialogue is unnecessarily ripe at times, there's little shock or entertainment value in that anymore - we are all just to anaethetised to it now. Clearly a labour of love for Matt Redd and Ryan Hooper, and I suppose that this is the kind of low budget film that the BFI ought to be funding; but just wait til it gets onto the small screen. No need at all to see this at a cinema.