Tucked

Dir: Jamie Patterson

2019

**

Jamie Patterson’s low budget indie is faultless in its charm and sensibility, it just doesn’t quite hit the mark. I think the real issue, at least in my opinion, was that certain opportunities were missed. The film stars Derren Nesbitt as Jackie, an elderly heterosexual man who works as a drag queen in a late-night club. The film’s opening is great, with Jackie entertaining her crowd by telling smutty jokes that are generally at his own expense. We soon learn that Jackie isn’t in good health and after a fall at home his doctor informs him that he has terminal cancer, with perhaps only weeks to live. When the doctor asks if he has any friends of family he’d like to contact he confesses that he has none, he is alone. Without really knowing what to do, Jackie carries on as normal so he continues to work nights at the club because its what he enjoys. That night a new girl arrives called Faith (played by Jordan Stephens of Rizzle Kicks fame). She is young and sassy and within minutes there is a mutual respect between the pair. That night, during a cigarette break behind the club, a group of three lads shout abuse at the pair and a fight ensues, leaving the friends bloody but the victors. Jackie then discovers that Faith is living in her car and insists she come home with him and stay as long as she likes. Faith soon discovers Jackie’s secret illness and decides to help him with his bucket list. The list includes many different things, such as visiting a strip club (where Jackie merely talks to the girl there, rather than anything else) and taking drugs. It also transcribes that he has an estranged daughter who he’d love to reconnect with but does not think is possible. Faith contacts Jackie’s daughter behind his back and organises a secret meeting where they reconcile. She tells him that she is getting married in a couple of months and that she wants him to walk her down the isle. In the final scene set a year later, we learn that Jackie managed to live long enough to walk his daughter down the isle before passing away and Faith has taken his spot in the club and gives a speech about how much he loves and misses him. It’s a bit of an anti-climax if I’m being honest. I really liked the idea behind the story but it wasn’t executed very well. I really wanted to love it and get behind a British independent film but I just couldn’t help but be frustrated for the film Tucked could have been. I liked Derren Nesbitt performance, he’s a great actor but he was let down by a shoddy script. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jordan Stephens for taking on the role, and while I don’t think he did a bad job, he went a little too Jay Davidson for my liking. Davidson’s performance in The Crying Game is iconic, by all means be influenced by it but for goodness sake don’t try and imitate it. Again, he is let down by the script, as are the entire cast. I didn’t find the story too cliché, predictable perhaps but not so much that it ruined it. What I most objected to was the way the drag element of the film and the two main characters had to fight through a straight world. It was a bit ridiculous really. Why make a film about drag queens and not embrace that world? Sexuality didn’t really have to come into it either, all that was important was for the characters to be themselves and to flourish. There were so many missed opportunities, great set-ups for what could have been brilliant scenes. The scene where Jackie and faith buy drugs from Steve Orman’s drug dealer character was crying out for comedy. Orman is a very funny actors, and an elderly drag queen buying cocaine for the first time should have been funny but instead Orman was written as an aggressive character. This wasn’t a Cuban drug deal taking place in Miami, this was a very ordinary transaction. Drug deals don’t all go down like Scarface, some dealers are actually quite friendly and chilled out (I’m told) which makes sense as they are a business, albeit an illegal one. The strip club scene could have also been funny, they instead went for tender, which is fine, but it could have been a lot more heartwarming than it was. It all comes back to script. The reunion between Jackie and his daughter is especially bad and the film suddenly went into poor soap opera mode. Like I said before, the ending felt half-arsed and lazy, like they ran out of ideas/time/money. I think what would have been better (and Jamie Patterson could claim this but I wouldn’t believe him) would have been if Faith was actually the embodiment of Faith, not a real person but only visible to Jackie – without Jackie knowing this. That would have been the sort of magic the film needed. Some could argue that it would have made the film even more cliché, which could be true, but in all honesty I think it would have given it the sparkle that was so lacking. Actual drag queens was also lacking, which is something of an oversight in a film about drag queens. Like I said, I really wanted to love the film but in the end it becomes its own worst critic. Such a shame but still worth watching for its charm, which it does have a level of.