Portraits of Dangerous Women review – pleasant to a fault

Camaraderie can come in many guises, and in Pascal Bergamin’s Home Counties runaround, Portraits of Dangerous Woman, it flourishes as the result of an accidental dog killing and subsequent hush-up woodland burial. This light, dry domestic comedy of manners draws in an ensemble cast to tell of three slightly-lost souls who become entangled in the aftermath of this grisly episode, giving one another a personal and professional leg-up as their lives spiral out of control.

Jeany Spark’s Steph is a slightly daffy school teacher whose marriage is sliding off the rails (the introduction of a cat into the domestic ecosystem only makes matters worse). Then there’s Tara Fitzgerald husky-toned school caretaker with “a past”. Finally, there’s Yasmin Monet Prince’s Ashley, a young woman who’s yet to leave her mark on life, but in the process of consorting with cynical local art dealer Jon (Mark Lewis Jones), thinks she may have found her metier.

The film has cheap and cheerful vibes, formally stripped back to the core but powered by some game performances and a script that’s lightly peppered with some wry social observation. It’s perhaps a little to purposefully slight and meandering to really leave its mark, but there’s enough invention to make this feel like more than a Sunday teatime TV special transposed to the big screen.

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