Lad: A Yorkshire Story

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Tone is one of the hardest things for a film to get right, so it’s gratifying to witness a picture that knows its proper wavelength and stays on it from start to finish, like a phonograph needle that never veers from its groove.

Writer/director Dan Hartley’s “Lad: A Yorkshire Story” is a semi-autobiographical tale about a 13-year-old boy who loses his way and finds it again with the help of a grizzled but kindly park ranger. It’s an old-fashioned sort of filmmaking, one based on human interactions and genuine emotions rather than a lot of zigs and zags of the plot.

Tom Proctor is a pretty normal working-class Yorkshire kid. He likes soccer, his dad works at the quarry when he’s not puttering in the garage or down at the pub, mom’s a store cashier, older brother Nick (Rob Hayes) spends equal parts teasing and guarding.

They’re blessed by having the brilliant northern England countryside to roam around — gorgeously photographed by David Mackie — lush and hilly and full of rocks, which Tom and his father collect as amateur geology hobbyists.

But tragedy strikes when dad dies, and mom (an affecting Nancy Clarkson) struggles to keep the family afloat emotionally and financially. Nick departs suddenly for the army, leaving Tom feeling even more abandoned. He takes out his frustrations on the bank that’s trying to foreclose on their mortgage, in a revenge that’s both funny and ingenuous.

As punishment, Tom is assigned to assist Al Thorpe (Alan Gibson), a ranger for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. A kindly paternal soul, Al takes the boy under his wing, accepts his sullen moods without complaint and puts him to work fixing fences, herding runaway sheep, cleaning fields and other odd tasks of the ranging life.

Ever so slowly, Tom begins to let go of the anger riding him like unwanted freight. He embraces the work and bonds with the older man, who calls him “lad,” as a father figure he desperately needs.

Further complicating matters is Molly McGlynn as Lucy, Al’s granddaughter who pops by from time to time for a visit and to exchange insults with Tom. A 16-year-old female, she is to Tom like a higher life form whose behavior seems capricious and bewildering. Not quite antagonism nor romance, their bonding defies explanation, other than to say it feels utterly natural.

I liked that Hartley didn’t just shunt the mother character to the background, as films of this ilk often do. She has her own internal motivations, makes her own plans and acts upon them, and actually seems to exist as a distinct character rather than just showing up now and then to help move the plot.

Gibson is just terrific as Al, whose patter may seem superficial at first, but we soon learn there’s a lot of wisdom behind his bromides and paternal mien. And Bretten Lord is a revelation as Tom. He’s so naturalistic and unmannered, he seems exactly like a real boy stuck in dire circumstances rather than a movie concoction.

Gibson and Lord’s scenes together have such weight and authenticity, it’s astonishing to learn this is the first film role for either one. The same goes for Hartley, a veteran film crew member making his feature-film debut as a screenwriter and director.

“Lad” builds to a conclusion that is not entirely unexpected, but the film earns every emotional moment it has. This movie is wry, tragic, funny and poignant. It is utterly without pretense or irony and is, in its own way, flawless.

5 Yaps