Heading to DVD and streaming platforms on 9th September 2019 in the UK is tucked – and here’s our review.
Certificate: 15
Director: Jamie Patterson
Cast: Derren Nesbitt, Jordan Stephens, April Pearson, Steve Oram, Lucy-Jane Quinlan
Reviewer: Charlotte Harrison
Tucked opens with Jackie (Nesbitt), an ageing drag queen, lip-syncing Gloria Gaynor’s seminal classic ‘I Will Survive’. Her set concludes with audience interactions and the dispensing of all manner of double entendres. Upon getting home, Jackie collapses; the diagnosis is terminal cancer, with only a few weeks left to live. During Jackie’s next shift at work, she’s asked to look after 21-year-old Faith (Stephens), a newbie on the scene. A fast but firm friendship quickly follows.
Tucked may follow a well-worn path, but travelling along it with such well sketched out and caringly constructed characters is delightful. It quietly ruminates on the painful contradictions of everyday life, and that there’s light and shade in every moment. It’s about beginnings and endings, comedy and tragedy, humour and sadness – all colliding together. But what always remains in Tucked is the joy in amongst the sadness. The only certainty in life is that the bad stuff will find you, no matter how hard you to try to hide from it. We could be angry or resentful, but truly the only thing you can do is find the happiness within it.
This is best epitomised in the film when Jackie and Faith set about crossing off Jackie’s bucket list, sat in a strip club, the pair eating toasties whilst Faith chastises Jackie for shying away from a private lap dance by exclaiming, “don’t be a testicle!” Within the darkest of moments, Jackie finds Faith (yes, the irony is acknowledged!) and together they try to make the best of it. Both Nesbitt and Stephens provide excellent performances. The odd couple dynamic never feels strange and always believable. The 84-year-old Nesbitt provides a quietly elegant, stately, performance as an estranged father who hasn’t become embittered by loneliness, merely accepting of it. Stephens, perhaps best known for being half of hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks, is endearing as feisty Faith. Together they share scenes that invoke laughter and a fair share of tears.
But perhaps the greatest thing about Tucked is how it quietly conveys a simple yet beautiful message – always be yourself. Even when it feels like the entire world is against it, always be yourself.
