Incidental Characters review – muddling along, looking for love

Benjamin Verrall’s film is a quirky, low-key if underpowered British indie set in Lewes, East Sussex, and although it never quite came alive as a film, there are some nice moments. It could yet work well as a pilot for a TV series.

Tony (Steve Watts) is a gentle, sensitive middle-aged guy without a partner who owns an independent publishing company and regularly visits his aged mum (Lucinda Curtis) who is in a care home. Alison (Isabella Marshall) is his office manager, a woman on whom Tony, in his muddled emotional state, has persuaded himself he has a crush. The firm employs shy, difficult young Alf (Howard Perret) to create promotional videos to advertise their books on social media, and Alf has a talent somewhere between Jim Henson and Michel Gondry. Poor Alf is falling hard for Josie (Sophia Carpasso) who – like him – is an artist.

All the performances are perfectly well managed and the determinedly downbeat style works reasonably well on its own terms, although there is an outlying flash of intensity when Tony reads aloud a poem by John Clare, in comparison with which the rest of the dialogue is a bit subdued, though Capasso has a good “breakup” speech.

The daytime-soap aspect of Incidental Characters is something with potential, and Verrall has undoubted talent. In a television series, these characters would have the space to breathe more, and the energy levels could be ramped up.

• Incidental Characters is released in the UK on 21 February.