Let Me Show You Some Things

Doug (Jonny Shan) talks Essex. Fee (Fiona Alexander) talks Edinburgh. They are brother and sister. Or rather, they are estranged brother and sister. You are not told anything, so when Fee asks Doug whether she can stay at his, you think, here we go!

“Smoke outside,” he tells her. “And don’t bring guys back here.”

Eh?

Obviously, they haven’t seen each other for yonks and yet he is so boring you wonder why Fee doesn’t leg it to the Y. His flat has the ambience of last night’s takewaway and their conversation is in urgent need of life support.

“Can you remember Dad?”

“A bit.”

“I remember him smoking.”

At one point, desperate to raise the entertainment levels, she produces a pack of cards. Guess what they play? Snap!

It is difficult to understand writer/director Sarah Tripp’s reason for making Let Me Show You Some Things (she doesn’t, by the way), unless it is autobiographical. The reunion of long lost siblings is not a bad idea and the use of close ups to intensify personal involvement has worked for others in the past, but Tripp’s problem is engaging her audience. The acting isn’t strong enough; the script isn’t tight enough; the irony (“I’m just trying to make you have fun,” Doug says) isn’t sharp enough.