Hallam Foe

Plot synopsis:
Hallam Foe is a teenage loner who lives on his father's large estate near Peebles. His hobby is spying on people from his tree house. Hallam is convinced that his stepmother (Verity) is responsible for his mother's death by drowning two years earlier. Hallam's sister leaves home to attend university and it becomes clear that Verity and his father want Hallam to move on as well. Hallam initially refuses due to his suspicion of Verity, but she uses his diaries first to have sex with him and then to blackmail him into leaving. To escape his father and stepmother, Hallam travels to Edinburgh.
Upon arrival in Edinburgh, Hallam sees Kate, an administrator at the Balmoral Hotel, located in the city centre. Kate bears a striking resemblance to his late mother. He manages to persuade her to give him a job as a kitchen porter in the hotel. Hallam makes his home in the clock tower of the hotel because of its vantage point over Kate's home in a top flat, where he can spy on her. He also spies on Kate through a skylight on her roof, clambering over the roofscape to reach his vantage point.
Hallam learns that another senior hotel employee (Alasdair) is having an extra-marital affair with Kate. Alasdair then discovers Hallam's lookout in the clock tower. Hallam attempts to blackmail Alasdair with the knowledge of his adultery, but Alasdair dismisses him. Hallam retaliates by finding Alasdair's wife and child and thereby demonstrating the ability, if he wishes, to inform her of the affair, which forces Alasdair to give him back his job.
Hallam eventually works his way up to being a front-of-house porter at the hotel. On his 18th birthday, Kate invites Hallam to have a few drinks after work. Whilst drunk, Hallam reveals his continuing love for his late mother. This seems to fascinate Kate, as she "likes creepy guys". A complex relationship starts to build between Hallam and Kate from this point.
Kate first invites him home with her that night, and when she attempts to seduce him, he begins to get uncomfortable and instead they sleep in the same bed. The next day he asks her on a date and she rejects him, but later she asks him to one of the hotel rooms and they have sex.
When Hallam is watching Kate, Alasdair confronts her and begins to act violently. Hallam comes through the skylight to save her, which results in her finding out that he had been spying. She tells Alasdair to leave. She punishes Hallam by making him stand nude and explain to her why he was spying. She feels bad for him after he tells her about his mother and she lets him stay. She puts on the dress that Hallam keeps that used to be his mother's, and when Hallam sees her he cries, and they fall asleep together.
Hallam's father and stepmother track Hallam down at this time because Hallam had reported his suspicions about his mother's death to the police in Edinburgh. They track him down because his father has run up significant debts and needs to develop some of the land on the estate, but Hallam is entitled to consultation under his mother's will. Hallam refuses to co-operate due to his suspicion of Verity.
Hallam's hatred of Verity consumes him entirely, and he tries to drown her in the loch by his father's house. However, his humanity takes over and he revives her. Only at this point does his father reveal that he had made no attempt to prevent Hallam's mother from committing suicide. This revelation allows Hallam to realise that his anger is in fact with his mother for leaving him. This cathartic moment enables him to move on for the first time and we leave him happy and content walking the streets of Edinburgh.

Tags: revenge, psychological, boring, storytelling, romantic

Review:
But where the disbelief needs suspending,Jamie Bell's performance saves the day, on the emotional side through bringing tremendous depth to his character, and on the physical side by making his rooftop athleticism completely believable.
The seventeen year-old Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell) is a weird teenager that misses his mother that committed suicide, drowning in a lake nearby their house in Edinburgh after an overdose of sleeping pills.
Hallam spends his spare time peeping the locals and blames his stepmother Verity Foe (Claire Forlani), accusing her of killing his mother.
After a discussion with his father Julius Foe (Ciarán Hinds), Hallam sneaks out from his house and travels to London, where he sees Kate Breck (Sophia Myles) and becomes obsessed for her because of her resemblance with his mother.
Kate hires Hallam to work in the kitchen of the hotel where she works and they have a strange romance, while Hallam reaches his maturity through the hardest way."Hallam Foe" is a surprisingly great and stylish little movie with an original and erotic romance with Oedipus complex, obsession and voyeurism.
The enjoyable story is funny, sexy and dramatic and the characters are well developed with great performances and chemistry of Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles.
Since Hallam's (Jamie Bell) mother died two years ago, he has detached himself from life, watching (even spying) the people from a distance, going as far as breaking in and searching their closets.
Jamie bell has certainly come a long way from that little dancing boy 'Billy Elliot', although he never seems to get any older, and here he takes another challenging role as Hallam Foe. Hallam is introduced to us as he skylines onto a couple having sex near his tree house, not only is he semi-clad and wearing make-up he is sporting a rather bizarre piece of headgear made out of a badger.
Directed by David Mackenzie it really does have a sense of love for the city and its people, but its Bell and Sophia Myles (Kate), whose strange relationship forms the centre of the film, that carry the plot along.
A strong cast made for compelling viewing, particularly Sophia Myles as the object of Hallam's roving lenses, though for me it was Jamie Bell's impressive turn that made it real.
Hallam is a film about a boy who misses his dead mother and ends up striking up a relationship with a women who looks like her.
The best parts of this film is the voyeurism angle and even that seems to get lost in the shuffle and even downplayed to other aspects like a weak and unnecessary family drama in addition to a murder mystery that it seems even David Mackenzie tries to downplay and holds off as long as he can.
Jamie Bell does give a great performance as Hallam playing a somber yet energetic teenager even if he doesn't have much to work with.
The result is a film that strives hard to be a departure, but spoils its early promise.The film is about an adolescent, Hallam Foe, in a Scots upper middle-class dysfunctional family (wife recently dead, the husband having replaced her with his young English lover) on a remote Scottish estate.
The early scenes are full of an atmosphere of unknown menace and lurid danger, reminiscent of Ian MacEwan's early stories.Hallam Foe is a very unusual, oedipal adolescent, one of many young screen protagonists that seem to be the spawn of the original fictional teenage weirdo, Holden Caulfield.
But after developing a relationship with the stranger, the film becomes slack and loses interest as the plot becomes tenuous and spins off into improbability.Still, on the plus side, Hallam Foe is not bad and even quite funny, and has a real sense of place.
After various confrontations in his home town, mostly brought on by spying on the locals, he flees to London and begins a stalker type of romance with a hotel worker who looks like his deceased mother.The charm of this movie is in the witty dialog, Hallam's unexpected cleverness, and his determination to confront his own issues.
The ending is especially good, being just about what you would expect to happen in real life.There is a real overtone of romance in this movie, making it a good date film, and a couple of clever sex scenes that are graphic without being explicit: there isn't much skin on display, but what's going on is obviously no-holds-barred humping.Guys will like this film for Hallam's cleverness and determination, girls will like it for the offbeat romance, and everyone will groove to it for the quirkiness.
MISTER FOE (aka HALLAM FOE) is another dark film about buried pain and insecurities, much like director David Mackenzie's YOUNG ADAM.
Mackenzie is also responsible for the crackling screenplay adapted from the novel by Peter Jinks, the story of a young lad named Hallam (Jamie Bell) damaged by his mother's death/?suicide to the point where he separates himself from the world by living in a tree house, observing his father (Ciarán Hinds) in his too rapid replacement of Hallam's mother with the dangerous Verity (Claire Forlani).
One day he spies a woman named Kate (Sophia Myles) who greatly resembles his dead mother and he begins stalking her, spying on her in every conceivable way until he convinces her to hire him in her hotel as a kitchen porter.
The story is bizarre and very dark at times, but the performance by Jamie Bell, well accompanied by those of Hinds, Forlani, Myles et al, make this tale of coming of age fascinating.
A wonderful atmospheric film in which Jamie bell shows off his excellent emotional range - one of the highlights of this year's Edinburgh International Film festival - along with 'Saxon' and 'Control', I found this one film made me leave the cinema smiling and also with a slight tear in my eye...The settings of the City are at times breathtaking and yet also grim But that is the beauty of it - the supporting cast give us colour and the atmosphere is first rate.Highly recommended.Fiona (Ilove Brit flicks).
Troubled by his mother's death, Hallam Foe (Bell) runs away to Edinburgh where he finds a woman who looks startling like his mother The nature of Hallam Foe shows a young lad fighting an onslaught of emotions after the sudden and complicated death of his mother.
The title character is strong to lead, adds the necessary drama whilst never letting up on the controversial stalker ideology whilst never being too in your face to be a preacher.The scripting never makes you feel like you're being force fed issues and regulations like some British films do, as with East is East for example.
The opening scenes of Hallam walking around the country are splendid but the best shot comes when he is climbing the roofs of Edinburgh with his boss.What I must say is that whilst programmes such as Skins and films such as Brassed off all have relevance to real life is relative, Hallam Foe is perhaps a more established show that does not showcase its issues, and for that reason it is up there with the best British films.
But the film withholds it until the protagonist has been through what he needs to go through in order for the film to be the number of things that it is.The father is Julius (Hinds) and his son and character from which the title heralds is Hallam Foe, played with the right amount of naivety and confidence by Jaime Bell, one of Britain's more promising recent talents that has made it big in America thanks to such films like King Kong and the recent Jumper.
This embeds more distrust and, ultimately, hate within Hallam and spawns a certain sexual encounter which forces him away and onto his adventure.While the film is all those things in terms of narrative, the study is one that goes a little deeper.
He gazes at a young girl and her partner kissing and so forth in the forest at the beginning before incurring the wrath after interrupting; he shares a joke at the dinner table to do with his stepmother looking like a prostitute; he is blackmailed and seduced away by a woman much older than him and already in a relationship with his father but the biggest piece of evidence is the fact he mistakes a woman as his mother once in Edinburgh and actually falls in love with her.The girl is Kate, played by Sophia Myles.
I also felt there was something lacking between actors Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles.Still, this is decent film-making and at least an attempt to tackle an interesting subject, so worth a rental..
It won't be your liking ...Jamie Bell has a great role here, where he can play out a few things and try his acting skills.
And yet, he - Hallam Foe (aka Jamie Bell from Billy Elliot fame) - is our hero and, stranger still, we root for him.He gets in all sorts of trouble when he leaves his father and stepmother to go and live and work in Edinburgh, where he meets someone who looks like his late mother and then starts a relationship with her.The soundtrack is great and goes well with the beautiful shots of Edinburgh city from on high.
While Hallum was battling adversity & falling in love with a slightly older woman (He seemed to be about 18), Sophia Myles did everything possible in her acting to come across as the most desirable woman I have seen on film in some time.
As soon as you get onto his wavelength, though, "Mr. Foe" is involving and quite suspenseful; Edinburgh, where Hallam ends up after a few frantic scenes, seems like paradise for a teenage voyeur (another of his wee idiosyncrasies) who's not afraid of heights, with its ladders, gutters and pitched slate roofs.
We hadn't seen "Billy Elliot," so Jamie Bell was a revelation; Ciarán Hinds, as Hallam's father, is always good as a suspect authority figure ("Rome," "Game of Thrones"), and Sophia Myles and Jamie Sives are perfect as a lovely apparition and an ugly foe (with a lowercase f).
David Mackenzie's follow-up to the brilliant Young Adam wants to be a feel-good underdog story of a lonely voyeur who is trying to confront some psycho-sexual issues with his dead mother.
But strangely the film is anything but youthful.Like Young Adam this film's central mystery concerns a drowned woman- in this case Hallam's mother.
Then he gets extremely sidetracked by a girl who resembles his mother, which frustratingly leads the story away from the mystery element.While Jamie Bell does bring out some very endearing traits in his lost character, he was limited by the obviousness of his psychological needs.
a boy falls in love with a girl who looks like his mother - and the imagined murder of her mother was the interlude.well i still rate this film as watchable purely because of jamie bell's beautiful nuanced performance but for nothing else.
Jamie Bell (who I'll always associate with Billy Elliott) was phenomenal as Hallam Foe, a seventeen year old voyeur, whose mother had recently committed suicide.
Probably one of the most widely anticipated films of this year, "Hallam Foe" is a weird voyeuristic drama, a mix of whodunit, romance and family drama.There is a great level of eccentricity that completely permeates "Hallam Foe", and this generates right from the eponymous title character, in an intense yet believably rounded performance from Jamie Bell.Hallam (Bell) is a self-absorbed outsider obsessed with his dead mother who lives with his dad (Ciaran Hinds) and his stepmother (Claire Forlani) in the Scottish Highlands.
Kicked out of his house after he goes too far, he heads to Edinburgh where he gets a job as a kitchen porter, beginning a romance with his boss Kate (Sophia Myles), the spitting image of his mum...The film looks great, with some great location shooting in the Scottish Highlands and Edinburgh, complemented with a lively contemporary soundtrack.Bell is well supported by Hinds and Forlani, along with rising star Sophia Myles as the luminous Kate.
Jamie Sives as excellent as Hallam's thoroughly dislikeable love rival, and Maurice Roeves and Ewen Bremner, as his bonkers work colleagues, provide much welcome comic relief.It can feel a bit too weird for its own good and Hallam does things which would land ordinary people in jail, and it's only through Bell's sympathetic portrayal that we're warming to him, when probably we shouldn't.For anyone keen to see what all the fuss has been about, "Hallam Foe" is well worth your time..
In the end what should have been a film about a kid coming to terms with the death of his mother and growing up, it becomes a lot more: it's also a film about a weird and probably even slightly incestuous and uncomfortable love story, a nasty step mother, voyeurism, sexuality, pain, death  There's just too much in it and some of it just doesn't go anywhere.
The scene with the mother's dress at the end is rather forced and actually for the film to worked better (WATCH OUT FOR THE BIG SPOILER HERE) Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles should have never had sex (another scene that really sticks out as uncomfortable is the one where the two of them name their private parts When you see it, you'll know what I mean).
Anyway, to round it all up: "Hallam Foe" is an OK film, lifted from the bag mediocrity where most films lay these days by Jamie's performance and some lovely moments throughout which are genuinely inspired and original and make you want to forget the (several) other bad bits.
Hallam Foe(Jamie Bell) hates his new stepmom, but it doesn't stop him from doing her, in a tree-house, no less.
At times, "Hallam Foe" suggests what "Back to the Future" would look like if Alfred Hitchcock directed it.
Since Hallum eventually beds Kate, the sight of the mother's double having rough sex with another man would seem to indicate that his covert witnessing triggered a feeling of longing that's both romantic, and parental.In the film's most pivotal scene, "Hallam Foe" evokes Hitchcock's "Vertigo" when Kate wears the dress of Hallam's dead mother.
By going after the stepmother instead of the father, "Hallum Foe" never fully commits to the idea that the boy thinks Kate is his dead mother.
Hallam leaps gaily from rooftop to rooftop, obsessively following Kate (Sophia Myles), a complete stranger that he believes resembles his mother.
The psychology being, if you need instant intelligence and charisma to fulfil the oedipal complex of a movie script, it will suddenly appear.Now Hallam Foe is not an awful film: it just isn't very good.
Jamie Bell looks like he's enjoying being Grown Up, but otherwise he seems to think he is so good that just saying the lines will make him great.
Probably David Mackenzie's best movie since 2002's weird and wonderful, not to mention kind of shocking, "The Last Great Wilderness".Jamie Bell (never better, not even in "Billy Elliott") plays Hallam Foe. Living in the Scottish Borders, Hallam is a rebel.
Both Jamie Bell, as Hallam, a physically attractive voyeur/creep, and Sophia Myles, as Kate, his kinky partner in sex and fantasy romance, are convincing.
As he walks through the city the camera films the understanding on his face; first it's miserable and childish, then it goes up and you see a new Hallam, a clear and beautiful character development.That is why this movie is good.
Seventeen year-old Hallam Foe is a weird teenager that misses his mother, who committed suicide, drowning in a lake nearby their house in Edinburgh after an overdose of sleeping pills.
Hallam spends his spare time peeping at the locals and blames his stepmother Verity Foe, accusing her of killing his mother.
After a discussion with his father Julius Foe, Hallam sneaks out from his house and travels to Edinburgh, where he sees Kate Breck and becomes obsessed with her because of her resemblance to his mother.
Yes, it's very impressive to look at, and the performances are great, but it concentrates too much on the mother fixation to convince us that this is some kind of psychedelic coming of age movie, or the Anti-Ferris Beuller if you would.It's not very nice to watch in some scenes, and it has a downbeat feel all the way through, But Bell and Miles put some much needed human elements into it, thanks to their decidedly weird relationship.The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, and just about saves the film, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense unfortunately, it's just a film about a boy who cannot forget about his mother, tries to get away from it, finds a woman who looks like his mother, watches her have sex, and in the last minute of the film decides not to dwell and find himself instead.A bit bland to be honest..
Hallam Foe tells us the story about a boy who lost his mother and experiences some sort of Oedepus complex afterward.It is something like 95 minutes long but would be better in ten.
Good Date Movie And Another Excellent Performance By Jamie Bell.
There, that is the best thing a critic can say to get guys to see a film, and I don't think I am wrong in that assessment, although a description of the film will not really be of much help.Mister Foe stars Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as the title character named Hallam.
It is jealousy at first sight and soon becomes a sort of oneupmanship like game between the two guys about who can become more important to Kate.Of course, the psychological motives for Hallam are Oedipal and sexual and his knee- jerk male attempt at dominating a woman and marking out his territory alludes to other flaws in his character, but you can't help but get involved in the story although it may be hard to explain to your friends why they should watch a film about dysfunctional Scottish people.I can only say it is because of the charm of the actors.