Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Nadine Marshall, Idris Elba, Kai Francis Lewis, Sharlene Whyte, Seroca Gideon, Llewella Gideon, Larrington Walker, Nicola Walker, Janelle Frimpong, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Carol Been, Nick Figgis, David Fernandez, Tosin Cole, Arinder Sadhra, Yemi Adenle, Anna Brooks Beckman.

Being allowed into the mind of someone is both a privilege and a curse and this is perhaps encapsulated to its fullest potential in Debbie Tucker Green’s film Second Coming.

The life of Jax is in turmoil, she is harbouring a secret so intense that it is bleeding through into her sleepless nights and in the end could just threaten the safety and sanity of her well being and that of her family.

Whilst many films deal with the steady increase of paranoia at their very base root, few really go the distance without descending into true madness and a kind of unbelievable dissatisfaction; they don’t pull back enough to understand that terror of reality and what can be perceived as a personal Hell are sometimes intermixed, they damn the subject matter before they even have a shot of personal redemption.

What Ms. Green manages to do is bring the slow paced film gently to a boil and then whip it off quickly as if to show that any human can slip into the realm between dark and shade and it might only be for the briefest of spells, especially when the misfires of the synapses have their way.

The film does meander slightly, especially at the beginning when the fine strands of the story are being brought together. Initially the audience member might be confused if they are meant to be following the story of Jax or of her son JJ, played with great dedication by Kai Francis Lewis. The two strands seem far removed as one worries about the future and what her secret will bring down upon the family, the other a good hearted lad whose interest in animals and birds far outweighs any academic future he may have.

Those strands do come together though and it is the culmination of the story in which the realisation of where life takes us which makes the film an enjoyable, if slow and sometimes off kilter, watch.

With Idris Elba giving the type of performance one would normally expect from a top rated actor and Nadine Marshall portraying the slow descent into alienation and guilt with near perfect clarity, Second Coming is a good film in which to immerse yourself into, but not at the expense of missing out on what could be a better couple of hours spent with a different and perhaps arguably more fulfilling film.

Ian D. Hall