A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide (2014)

It is hard enough in this industry to keep an audience laughing for 10 minutes never mind 85. However, the team behind 'A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide' have excelled in the task in hand and created a welcome addition to the field of Scottish comedy.The film centers around Tom Collins and his bid to pull off the most spectacular suicide in history. Whilst this may seem like an unusual topic to base a comedy round, the writers deal with the subject in a light hearted way that keeps the audience relaxed and captivated by the story surrounding the main character.The acting in this production is first class and I was surprised to learn that the lead role of Tom was portrayed by the films writer, Graeme McGeagh. For someone who isn't trained in the field of acting, Graeme did a tremendous job throughout the film despite the heavy burden of being a leading character in a feature film. His comic timing and charisma is prefect for this role and he would be highly sought after if he ever decided to go into acting full time. The film is also pleasantly complimented by the supporting cast such as Annabel Logan, Patrick O'Brien and Ray Crofter whose scenes with McGeagh are very laugh out loud moments.The film is relatively flawless in its technical achievement. As an editor, I only picked up on a few slips in the cutting of the film but nothing that deterred me from enjoying the film. The reason the film lost a star for me, is the carnival scene. For some reason, I felt it was extremely out of place in the film although it did tie in with an earlier section of the film.Behind every great film, is a great leader in the form of the director and I think Graham Hughes has done an outstanding job with this film. Directing a feature is no easy task but Graham has beautifully crafted a thoroughly entertaining film that would not look out of place in a run at mainstream cinemas across the country. He thoroughly deserved his nomination at the 2014 Edinburgh Film Festival (Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature) for this film and he will certainly be a name to look out for in the future as his career progresses.With rumours of a nod from the Bafta Scotland Awards its fair to say that 'A Practical Guide to a Spectacular Suicide' has earned itself a place in the history books and will be enjoyed for years to come.

Not without its flaws, but this film gets it right in virtually all the ways that count. It does well to handle the subjects of mental health and suicidality with both humor and seriousness. I thought the parts were generally well-cast. In particular, I thought the performances of the older character and the psychologist were memorable, and I was surprised to look online and not see more credits to their names yet!The only minor criticisms I had were that at a few moments, either the script and/or some of the acting felt a bit mannered/ theatrical (rather than film-style), but that didn't take away from the admirable, scrappy, labor of love that really does come across. It's clear that a lot of thought went into this movie.I do think it's really important to encourage up-and-coming local independent filmmakers, and I hope this work gets a broader circulation.