Ray Price Movies
- 1995
This British drama offers a gritty slice from the life of a hard-working Welsh single-mother. The story is set in the Rhondda Valley in southern Wales and follows the travails of young Jo, the mother of a young daughter. Jo works in a sweatshop as an ironer. Though she is rather poor, she has a good life. Her lover is Kevin, who is married. In her spare time, Jo studies. Recently she just moved into her own apartment in a project after spending several years with her slovenly father. To supplement her meager income, Jo sometimes models, and does the occasional phone sex gig. She uses part of this extra money to help out her troubled little sister, Andrea, a heroin addict. Jo's life begins to fall apart when she learns that she is 15-weeks pregnant. Upon hearing this, her charming lover, Kevin, backs off. She then discovers that he has also been sleeping with one of her friends. Then she hears that Andrea was nearly arrested and simultaneously, her mother becomes deathly ill. Jo knows that she cannot legally get an abortion, and so decides to take another course. With little self-pity or remorse, she conceals the pregnancy, bears the child in the woods, and promptly kills it. She then goes back to resume her life. Unfortunately, her troubles are not over, for the police find the infant's corpse floating in a river and launch a massive search for the murderous mother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this thoughtful drama, the lilt of the Welsh tongue and its special influence on the English spoken in Wales is almost a character on its own. The story concerns a boy who lives with his poor and mentally fragile mother in a small village. His mother has the boy singled out to go into the priesthood, whether that is his wish or not. When a harsh encounter with a mean-spirited relation drives his mother deeper into her own mind, the overwhelmingly oppressive situation causes something in the boy to snap, and what he does to his mother then, he regrets for the rest of his life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dyfan Roberts
- 1990
This unrelieved melodrama examines the nature of a child's experience of a domineering, volatile alcoholic parent. It is based on an autobiographical account by Carol-Ann Courtney. At first, the girl has some diversion from her intense and frightening relationship with her father in the person of her maternal grandmother, but that outlet is soon closed when her father bans her from their home. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Bergin, Sue Roderick, (more)
- 1987
The title of this Anglo-Canadian TV production is tinged with irony. So far as the main characters are concerned, home is a still a long way to go. Set in the months following World War I, the film takes place in a squalid Welsh "halfway" camp, where Canadian soldiers are kept for an interminable period of time before the British government deigns to ship them home. Fed up with go-nowhere bureaucracy and the shabbiness of their surroundings, the Canadians stage a violent revolt. Based on a true story, Going Home represented the directorial debut of veteran costume designer Terry Ryan. Heading the cast are veteran Canadian actors Nicholas Campbell, Paul Maxwell and Eugene Lipinski. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
