Cert 15
98 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language, sex references
Middle-aged men are obsessives. This blog is evidence that I am and I could quote dozens of examples of my friends and colleagues putting themselves under unnecessary pressure to complete a task which only has real meaning to them.
What would happen if I just gave up trying to watch every movie released in the UK?
Would the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock haunt me?
Obviously not but if I don't keep up the pace I begin to feel uneasy.
Which is exactly my mood this afternoon as I write about a movie which is held together by...a male obsession.
This particular one,which belongs to a chap called Gordon (Richard Lumsden), is to walk from England's west coast to its east.
And he does what men do with their obsessions - he ropes in three mates and his son.
In fact, his son is included to video their feat and so James Rouse's Downhill is meant to have that 'found footage' feel to it.
Thankfully, it is so much better than most of the crass films of the genre.
And that is down to the writing of Torben Betts, whose script is full of keen observations of the relationships and lives of middle-aged men.
I only laughed out loud twice during Downhill but I spent much of it smiling or nodding sagely to myself as layers of the lives of Gordon, Julian (Ned Dennehy), Steve (Jeremy Swift) and Keith (Karl Theobald) are peeled away.
Laughs: two
Jumps: none
Vomit: yes
Nudity: very briefly
Overall rating: 7/10