Tomorrow

Pitching Tomorrow as the new drama by “Martin Scorsese’s script supervisor” Martha Pinson might make it sound like the piss-take of “industry legend” Crayton Smith in the hysterical film festival episode of Nathan for You. But, sadly, this isn’t as gripping as the faux-Johnny Depp hacker movie presented there.

Tomorrow is drier than the Helmand River, which the lead character may have seen during his service in the British army. Following an injury by an IED, wheelchair-bound Tesla (a committed Sebastian Street) returns to London with no direction, his daily life affected by PTSD. He is triggered by noises as common as a car horn, let alone the war exhibition he visits with his girlfriend Katie (Stephanie Leonidas, charming). The trauma affects his relationships with friends and strangers, but everything changes one day when he meets the charismatic Sky (Stuart Brennan). He offers Tesla a new lease of life in the form of companionship, enthusiasm to get outside, and employment through rich investor Mr Charles (James Cosmo). The protagonist is fast-tracked to a better quality of life when his love for cooking lands him a job as a kitchen porter and, as aforementioned, he strikes up a romance with Katie, the friend of Sky’s own lover Lee-Anne (Sophie Kennedy Clark).

It’s a pretty bare-bones narrative: the return to normality, the question of what the new normals are in a life after armed service with a permanent disability. There’s something interesting in a story that probably reflects reality for a lot of ex-servicemen readjusting to the world, but the film’s dramatic inertia doesn’t make for particularly compelling cinema. Sometimes a feature can get away with it purely on intention – and Tomorrow’s intention is honourable – but when the execution is this sterile, it’s worth looking elsewhere. Not even cameos by British treasures Stephen Fry and Joss Stone can give this film any life.

Musanna Ahmed

Tomorrow is released nationwide on 27^th September 2019.

Watch the trailer for Tomorrow here: