A British film channelling the themes of the classic kitchen sink drama – A Light Through Coloured Glass graces our screens with a more optimistic vision of British realism than is typically seen in this genre. Director Mike Clarke’s low budget gritty drama is familiar with the generic conventions without becoming overly dependent on the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and misery I find dominants so much of British realism. This makes for a thought-provoking but also entertaining and, at times, uplifting film.
The story takes a somewhat unusual framework in the sense that we follow a relatively well-off, middle-class man named William. Many filmmakers may shy away from this perspective as it has the potential to be problematic. Saviour narratives, where someone in a position of power or better social standing “saves” another person from their circumstances, consequently casting the saviour in an angelic light, are not uncommon. The trope of white saviour narratives has been discussed within film studies as harmful and contributing towards the upholding of colonial ideologies, rather than their dismantling. The base concept of these saviour narratives are intersectional in their construction meaning that socioeconomic status, gender and race may all be factors. The premise of A Light Through Coloured Glass revolves around a man who is highly involved within the church trying to help a loud, aggressive, woman who gets into trouble with shopkeepers and drug dealers, and cannot hold down a job for more than a few months at a time. William hosts a religious show on local TV and Tina spends her weekdays waiting for the weekends so that she can get smashed.
The two are worlds apart, and Coloured Glass doesn’t try to pretend this isn’t true. Of course, while the pair may share some similarities, their circumstances are vastly different. The film tackles this head on. Clarke also directly tackles the issue of middle-class hand wringing over those who are less well off. The film draws attention to the fact we are more comfortable making a simple gesture that looks good on the surface and satisfies our conscience than delving deeper into an issue to solve it. For example, when William sees that Tina is distressed about being unable to afford both milk for her baby cigarettes, he swoops in like a knight in shining armour to pay. However, upon learning that Tina does not in fact have a child and was lying to the shopkeeper, he suddenly feels his good deed is void. This person was not deserving of his help. William admits he only helped the Tina because he thought she had a child. This raises questions of how we decide who is worthy of help.
The film directly questions our motives for helping people. As a strange sort of friendship grows between the pair, Tina becomes uncomfortable as she feels she is forced to adopt the role of a “pity project” for William to complete to prove how good he is. By addressing this head on, the film avoids falling into this potentially problematic pit. As William invites Tina to live with him while she tries to sort her life out, she comes to believe the only reason William wants to help her is so that he can sleep with her. Thankfully, this is not the case. Clarke deals with these complex emotions deftly and with sensitivity, but never shies away from the subject matter at hand. With excellent performances from both Kyle Brookes and William and Sophia Leanne Kelly as Tina, the range of emotions portrayed by the pair are exceptionally nuanced. The film takes a darker turn with the character Dan, a drug dealer Tina owes money. Macaulay Cooper as Dan adds a greater level of drama to the narrative, holding viewers on the edge of their seats with his terrifying performance.
A Light Through Coloured Glass manages to maintain a good amount of optimism within it’s narrative without conforming to a classical Hollywood style ending. There are twists and turns, and not everything works out for the best. I think part of the success of the film is that Tina appears to make positive change off her own back over a period of 8 months that is undocumented in the film. While William may have had an impact on her life, he was not her saviour. She found the changes within herself and pushed towards them.
A sensitive drama with the hallmarks of British realism. Watch the trailer below.