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MovieMail's Review
Hayley Mills stars as a sweet-natured but lonely teenage girl who falls for Ian McShane's gypsy in this fine film directed by her father. It's an effective directorial debut says Julian Upton.
Although Sky West and Crooked was a showcase for Hayley Mills, her father John exhibits such quiet confidence behind the camera that it’s not a stretch to rank the film up there among the most effective directorial debuts by British actors, such as Albert Finney’s Charlie Bubbles.
Mills Snr doesn’t appear onscreen, but, producing and directing a screenplay from a story by his wife, Mary Hayley Bell, he makes this very much a family affair, the main objective of which is to give their daughter something to get her teeth into after years of typecasting in wholesome Disney adventures.
Mills Jnr plays Brydie, a mentally challenged teenager teetering dangerously close to the brink of womanhood (despite still looking 13), a fact not unnoticed by local gypsy boy Roibin (Ian McShane).
When the unlikely pair edge towards a romance, the villagers and the Romany community are equally aghast. Gloriously pretty to look at, this rural melodrama is also as prickly as a jaunt through the bramble bushes, with suitably barbed performances from its eclectic supporting cast.
Directed by John Mills and starring his daughter, Hayley, Sky West and Crooked tells the story of an isolated, traumatised yet free-spirited young girl, who finds solace in a rather unusual pastime. Tension mounts in the West Country village in which Brydie White (Hayley Mills) has lived all her life. As a child, she witnessed the death of her friend Julian, who was accidentally killed whilst playing with his father’s shotgun.
Brydie, wounded and left mentally damaged by the accident, has no memory of the event. But while the villagers have suspicions, Julian’s father, Edwin, holds her squarely responsible for the death. Ostracised and misunderstood, Brydie retreats from the adult world and finds companionship among a group of younger children with whom she pursues a new pastime - solemnly burying deceased animals in a sequestered corner of the churchyard. As the children’s activities cause consternation in the village, Edwin Dacres’ anger reaches boiling point. But there is yet more for the innocent Brydie to contend with: Roibin (Ian McShane), a handsome young gypsy, has fallen in love with her...
Hayley Mills’ emotionally compelling performance is at the heart of this touching, poignant and often humorous film. Sky West and Crooked was both written and adapted by Hayley Mills’ mother, Mary Hayley Bell, and stars Annette Crosbie as Brydie’s alcoholic mother and Geoffrey Bayldon as the beleaguered but sympathetic Reverend Moss; the film also boasts beautiful cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson and a haunting score by Oscar-winning composer Malcolm Arnold.
