EIFF 2012: Unconditional Review

With their mother heavily disabled, teenage twins Owen and Kristen spend the majority of their time looking after her. That changes when handsome young loan shark Liam enters the picture with Kristen hoping she can secure a loan to ease their financial woes and seduce Liam in the process. The one catch is that Liam only has eyes for Owen.

Using his charm, stature and relative wealth, Liam whisks Owen out of his difficult life, offering him everything he could ever ask for, the one condition being that Owen dress as a woman whenever they’re together, Liam telling Owen “I don’t kiss boys, I’m not some kind of deviant”.

It’s a brave set up but first time feature director Bryn Higgins and writer Joe Fisher handle the complex subject matter of Unconditional by drawing well rounded characters and offsetting the whole thing with dark humour, without which the film would tilt into the ridiculous. It’s occasionally a hard watch and the early scenes have an edgy unpredictability as you wonder just where Liam and Owen’s relationship will go as Liam’s obsession gets deeper and darker.

Newcomer Harry McEntire does a fantastic job as a teen ripe for this kind of grooming: lonely, isolated and confused. Cemetery Junction’s Christian Cooke is equally impressive as the smoothly sinister Liam. Equally as confused and insecure as Owen, Cooke effectively portrays Liam as a disturbed man struggling to come to terms with his own desires. A cringe-inducing scene involving Liam’s parents shows his sweet mother is accepting of his sexuality as long as he is happy but his judgemental father is not quite so approving, his attitude most likely a large contributing factor to Liam’s current issues.

For all the film does well, there comes a point where it seems the script doesn’t quite know where it wants to go. Thankfully it never descends into a clichéd violent climax but too often in the film’s final third Owen leaves Liam and a scene later, he’s back in drag and hanging out with him again. After the third or fourth time, it starts to feel repetitive and tedious, as if the script is just killing time until it gets to its ending.

That aside, the performances are good and it’s a credit to the filmmakers that a movie with this premise is as enjoyable as it is, avoiding sleaze and exploitation in favour of heart and complex characterisation.