Dakota Road ** (1991, Charlotte Chatton, Jason Carter, Rachel Scott, Liz Smith, Amelda Brown, Matthew Scurfield, Alan Howard) – Classic Movie Review 13,134

Dakota Road (1991).

Dakota Road (1991)

Nick Ward’s 1991 British drama film Dakota Road is a terribly English tale of rural depression and repression.

Deep in the East Anglia, UK, fenland, a family gradually falls apart under the weight of its own repressions as farm labourer’s abused daughter Jen Cross (Charlotte Chatton) chucks her local boyfriend in favour of quick kicks with lads from the nearby US air base, and she is seduced by a pilot.

Writer/ director Nick Ward’s 1991 British drama film Dakota Road is a terribly English tale of rural depression that never quite gets off the ground despite some good performances, especially from the underused Alan Howard as the bitter local landowner Alan Brandon who sacks the heroine’s dad Bernard Cross (Matthew Scurfield).

Though hardly riveting or fascinating, it is still of some interest for the story’s sensitivity and the performances, but the dreariness of the bleak story and the featureless fen landscape ends up dragging much of the film down into a quagmire.

The cast are Charlotte Chatton, Jason Carter, Rachel Scott, Liz Smith, Amelda Brown, Matthew Scurfield, Alan Howard, David Bamber, Alexis Denisof, and David Warrilow.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,134

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