At last! A Christmas tale that isn't schmaltzy: Hector is tender and thought provoking, says BRIAN VINER 

By Brian Viner for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:07 EST, 10 December 2015 | Updated: 20:47 EST, 10 December 2015

Hector (15)

Rating:

The title character in Hector is a homeless Scotsman, in failing health, making his annual trip from Glasgow to London to stay in a men’s hostel for Christmas. Which doesn’t sound like a bundle of seasonal joy, and it isn’t, but actually writer-director Jake Gavin’s debut feature is touching, superbly acted, and if you can find it, well worth seeing.

Peter Mullan is quietly wonderful as Hector, a wry, world-weary teetotaller, whose homelessness, we learn, stems from a breakdown which in turn was triggered by a family tragedy.

The plot of Hector doesn't make for a bundle of seasonal joy but Jake Gavin’s debut feature is touching, superbly acted, and if you can find it, well worth seeing

The plot of Hector doesn't make for a bundle of seasonal joy but Jake Gavin’s debut feature is touching, superbly acted, and if you can find it, well worth seeing

He has long been estranged from his brother and sister, but now he wants to see them again. His journey, in both the literal and the over-used metaphorical sense, is propelled by small acts of kindness, though there is a heartbreaking moment in Liverpool, when a friendly cafe owner finds him leaning over the counter.

She thinks he’s trying to rob the till; in fact, he’s reaching for a cloth to mop up some spilt tea.

A solid supporting cast includes Gina McKee, Keith Allen and Stephen Tomkinson, with Sarah Solemani particularly fine as the compassionate manager of the men’s hostel where Hector gets Christmas shelter. As an antidote to the standard, tinsel-draped Hollywood fare at this time of year, I can’t recommend Hector more highly.

 

Swung (18) 

Rating:

I recommend another Scotland-based film, Swung, only if you want to see a blonde-wigged Elizabeth McGovern in a role that could hardly be more different to that of Lady Cora in Downton Abbey. She plays a former dominatrix, now running soirees for ‘swingers’. Never was a stage set more perfectly for Mr Carson to enter with his tea tray. They would both crash to the ground in horror.

But the former Lady Cora apart, Swung has few virtues. It tells the surprisingly tedious story of a young-ish couple whose love life is blighted by his erectile dysfunction, and who try to solve it by attending swingers’ parties.

Indifferent acting and writing made me want to swing in a different direction altogether . . . towards the exit.

 

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