Set the Thames on Fire

Destined for cult veneration, Ben Charles Edwards's debut feature is a laudably ambitious "Agony in Three Acts" set in a flooded future London. Yet, for all the grim beauty of the visuals, the perambulations of pianist Michael Winder and aspiring sailor Max Bennett are markedly less compelling, as they criss-cross the waterlogged and seemingly isolated city to encounter such eccentric denizens as uncouth overlord Gerard Mcdermott, perverse transvestite Noel Fielding, lascivious landlady Sadie Frost and resentful fortune-teller Sally Phillips and her scheming assistant, Lily Loveless. It hardly helps that in seeking to channel their inner Withnail & I, Winder and Bennett struggle to register against their scene-stealing co-stars or that Al Joshua's loquaciously episodic script makes so few expository compromises. But the production design and cinematography are exceptional, and reinforce comparisons with the dystopian visions of film-making teams like Delicatessen's Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.