Everyone's Happy

Simon Beaufoy (Among Giants, The Darkest Light and, uhh, The Full Monty) developed this script working with director Lea, the actors, and students from the Bournemouth Film School, who helped out on the ten-day shoot. It involves two couples camping on the hills above Swanage. By some measure the most interesting character is Mike, a gambling addict trying to go cold turkey, but unable to help himself when one of the girls in the tent next door proves obliging. 'My whole life is a system of odds,' he tells her. 'Is that a good way to live?' His wife, meanwhile, is plucking up courage to visit the son she put up for adoption when he was a baby, and is none too thrilled that he seems on the point of sleeping with their other neighbour, a performance artist. Shot in that fashionable jerky, jumpy DV-TV style, and bolstered with a drum 'n' bass soundtrack, it's a lively calling card of a picture which wouldn't look out of place on the small screen, but there's no ending to speak of.