A Street Cat Named Bob

This review may contain spoilers!

A character in this film describes events as "an interesting human interest piece" and I think that succinctly sums up my views on the film too. I would give A Street Cat Named Bob a 6/10.

I think this film does a great job in discussing the reality of drug addiction, homelessness and poverty; in particular it works by showing these themes through the eyes of a very charismatic and likeable protagonist. The real extremes in life that James experiences show the highs and lows a recovering addict has to go through; I was deeply fascinated by the extreme emotional needs James had or developed as a recovering addict and found that to be one of the better discussion points of the film. The film's score had a really upbeat air to it that breathed some optimism into the feature, the soundtrack was very humble and dealt out the main character's heart and soul in a nice way.

Ruta Gedmintas, who played Betty, was a really unique and bubbly presence; Gedmintas does a great job of describing and crafting her role's heartbreaking backstory. Joanne Froggartt, who played Val, has the serious and professional mannerisms of a drug addiction counselor down well; yet I liked the small moments of heart that she put forth that gave a very real indication of how committed she was to the recovery of Treadaway's character. Anthony Head, who played Jack Bowen, crafted a great awkward divide between himself and Treadaway; yet what I really loved was how this film concluded with Head really starting to bridge that gap and repair the relationship between himself and Treadaway. Darren Evans, who played Baz, is a very tough glimpse to the harsh life on the streets of London; Evans brings forth a role who is reliant completely upon scoring a hit and it's really tragic to see just how lost he is.

However the best performance came from Luke Treadaway, who played James. This was a character who despite his failings and the direction life had taken him in you couldn't help but like. Treadaway really has some genuine connection with other members of the cast - be they animal or human, and more than this he developed a greater sense of happiness in his role the further things went along. I thought that the real sense of hopelessness and depravity Treadaway brought to his character's low points really stood out, these moments where his role's addiction seemed to rule him felt very realistically portrayed. Ultimately throughout the feature Treadaway brought forth a character who displayed the emotional extremes his recovery from addiction brought forth, which really made the ending where he worked to kick his habits all the more rewarding to watch.

The problem with hinging a movie on an animal is that often the tone of the film immediately migrates to 'family friendly' in an effort to accommodate the bumbling antics of the main animal star. This film in particular resorts to some weird moments of comedy that are at odds with the rest of the film in an effort to make Bob feel more relevant and have more of a presence within this feature. Sadly because of this a lot of the scenes where James' drug addiction is discussed or displayed is toned down to keep the rating of the film in a safe place; for me that just felt like creative suicide. The cinematography has to be one of the worst parts of the film, maybe a quarter of shots are taken from Bob's perspective giving the film a very ugly quality. The editing was quite slow especially when trying to create continuity in where Bob is from shot to shot, this becomes a major failing of the animal film.

Beth Goddard, Sasha Dickens and Cleopatra Dickens, who played Hilary, Faith and Pris respectively, felt like very heightened snobbish characters who were antagonistic merely for the sake of it; I really found Goddard's portrayal of alienated step-mother to be a particularly stereotypical performance. Ruth Sheen, who played Elsie, was more creepy than enthusiastic which I can only assume was the film's original intent with this role; the way she flirted with Treadaway and seemed to be fixated upon Bob was disturbing to say the least.