Little Bone Lodge (2023)

Plot of Little Bone Lodge: In an isolated highland farmhouse in Scotland a mother, ma, and her daughter, Maisy, live an isolated life, with a paralysed father, pa. But in a severe storm a young man, apparently a bit scatty and his father (maybe) appeal for shelter. The father, Jack, is injured, so ma sows him up and he detects that she knows what she is doing. The young man, Matty, seems to have moments of lack of control. It turns out that the two were in a car accident and are criminals on the run, on their way to a rendezvous at a port, and they take over the house holding ma and her daughter hostage. When a policeman turns up he asks some questions but he is shot dead by ma who has taken a shot gun down from its position over the fireplace. And for a while Jack and ma seem to be on the same side, but maybe they had not reckoned for the involvement of Jack’s criminal boss who turns up to sort things out.

Content: No sex or nudity, or drinking smoking or drug taking, although pa is injected with something on a regular basis, apparently to maintain his health, although he can’t talk or move and just sits in a wheelchair. Maisy and ma seem to have a loving relationship, although Maisy complains of never being allowed to socialise with anybody and at one time takes Matty to her bedroom, where they crouch in a tent and she operates a small radio, maybe unknown to ma. But Matty smashes it to prevent her hearing about him and Jack on the news. Jack is sometimes threatening because he has a gun. After the policeman is killed they take his car and the body to the crash site where Jack’s fellow criminals had died.

A View: This sort of Indie movie was pretty well presented, and in the reviews I learnt that Neil Linpow who I thought did really well as Jack had also been the writer, so congratulations to him. His most important outing so far appeared to have been in one episode of East Enders. But don’t let his lack of experience put you off, it is a perfectly watchable drama with a twist, which I am almost avoiding talking about.

Fun Fact: The film has only one trivia item on IMDb, featuring the change of name for the Americans.