The Hide
The Hide
| 01 January 2008 (USA)
The Hide Trailers

On the windswept Suffolk mudflats creaks a bird-hide, inside which hovers Roy Tunt, a prematurely aged, mildly obsessive-compulsive birder. With one more sighting - the elusive sociable plover - he will have 'twitched' the entire British List. Tunt has his shortwave radio, packed-lunch and a portrait of his ex-wife Sandra for company. Suddenly, in the midst of a conversation with Sandra's portrait, the hide door blows open and a bedraggled stranger - unshaven, edgy and bloodied introduces himself as Dave John, a fugitive from the storm. After a tense introduction, the two men discover that they have a good deal in common, sharing sandwiches, tea and personal exchanges which are frank, poignant and often funny. As the two men begin to form a close bond news of a police manhunt sets them both on edge driving their fragile relationship to a tragic conclusion.

Reviews
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
Alexander Fodor Excellent film. You have to work to get people to watch a film about two people in a bird hide for an hour and a half, but everyone I've bullied into it have been thrilled at the experience! It's just not what you expect at all. I only watched it because I accidentally recorded it one night in the tele. Excellent direction, acting, shooting and of course screenplay. The only thing wrong with the film is its lack of marketing. How can so few people ever have even heard of it?! Ever since watching I've been looking for stage plays to direct to go the same route, haven't found it yet but thoughts of The Hide keep me hunting!
poc-1 Cinema and theater are two different things. I think it has something to do with your attention. On stage I am sure this would be gripping, especially with McQueen as Roy, because you are forced to pay attention to the actors. On TV it's OK, a bit too long and with a fairly obvious twist, but it holds your attention. However, if I had paid to watch this in the cinema, I might have walked out. I loved the characters and McQueen is perfectly cast as Roy, a middle-England birdwatching cannibal.Its a good play, a reasonably TV movie, but would make for a very boring evening on the big screen. I think it might have worked better as a black comedy.
Ali Catterall When Sandra left him, he slept under his model railway; the bedroom held too many memories. Now Roy Tunt ("not a twitcher, an ornithologist") is holed up in his hide, binoculars in one hand, chicken-paste sandwiches in the other, waiting to tick off a sighting of the elusive Sociable Plover, a bird that hides among others. When a mysterious stranger (Campbell) shows up, with a tattooed neck and a gun under his coat, everything changes.The Hide is directed by Marek Losey, grandson of Joseph, purveyor of elegant, chilly, often bleakly funny psychodramas like The Servant. On this evidence, the fruit has barely tumbled from the bough. Reprising his role from the stageplay, MacQueen is especially brilliant as the fusty Tunt – something like a shaved real-ale drinker, with all the beer irrigated out of him. It's stagey, sure. But which also guarantees some exceptional characterisation and dialogue.
turners-1 Sorry to disagree with Mr Hitchcock, but this film gets twitchers spot on: like him I am a birdwatcher, and I have lost count of the number of them who, like Roy Tunt, claim 'I am not a twitcher: I am an ornithologist'. Just spend a day in a hide on the Somerset levels and you will see what I mean. Of course there are inaccuracies in the film - for example, no serious birdwatcher would go to the location where the film is set without a telescope, but that is beside the point: the film is about an obsessional man, and birdwatchers are a pretty obsessional bunch. Several years ago I was in a hide on the levels on a very cold Boxing Day afternoon: an elderly couple came in and during the course of a lively conversation informed us that a well known local birder had spent the whole of the previous day in the hide - despite have two children under the age of five. One can imagine Mr Tunt doing the same. To get back to the film, after the showing at the Bath Film Festival one of the producers did a Q&A, much of which revolved around why it can't get distribution: incredible really, especially when compared to a film like Cold Souls, also at the festival, which has a negligible plot. The film was apparently shot in 11 days, 5 days on location, 6 at Pinetree: the hide was bought for £100 from a Lincolnshire farmer, who couldn't believe his luck ! If anyone is wondering why the actor who plays David hasn't done any work for a few years, tragically his brother was murdered 4 years ago. No-one will be surprised to hear that a huge amount of effort went into the lighting, which perfectly captures the progress of a dank day from dawn to dusk. See it if you can, this is a gem.