A painfully frustrating movie, ‘Shannon Matthews: The Musical – The Movie’ is a film that ultimately left me feeling quite hollow. As someone who vividly remembers the events of the 2008 hysteria around the dissapearence and discovery of Shannon Matthews, and the revelation that her mother, Karen Matthews, had masterminded a plot to hide her daughter, report her as missing and then claim the ‘fame’ and reward money for her discovery for herself. I was genuinely intreagued when this movie/musical film was announced for digital release across all major platforms. And I was even more intreagued when I found out the music was all (more or less) written and produced by the infamous ‘Kunt and the Gang’ who have been politically sniping the conservatives now for the better part of half a decade at least.
Unfortunately, the film really kind of fails to live up to its potential. While there was scope here to do a fairly self aware, scathing swipe at the media tornado that surrounded this, Karen Matthews and the people around her as a series of strange and tragic figures and an attempt to genuinely try to play to a more intelligent level of humour using the cases heavy level of detail to play on the circumstances themselves. Instead we find ourselves in a situation where, for most of the runtime, it feels like the film is punching down.
The script leans heavily into generalisations on working class families and is essentially a 90 minute joke at the expense of the working class, peppered thoroughly with ‘nonce’ jokes to boot. Its really only catered to two audiences ‘Centrist dads’ who would take this as overly risque, but would accept it as a ‘funny film with bite’ and Daily Mail readers, who would likely sneer at its depictions of ‘Poverty porn’ claiming ‘its funny because its true!’
I honestly didnt much care for the humour in this, and found myself laughing more at the surreal moments (theres a repeated motif of the detective who’s on the case having ‘Caves of Androzani’ style nightmare visions of Karen matthews head, which I thought was handled quite well) theres a couple of one liners, lone gags that did raise a dirty chuckle from me. But make no mistake, this is paedophile jokes and gags aimed at ‘picking on the povo’s’ for 90% of the runtime.
The tone is largely mean spirited, which can work if the film invites us in to ridicule these awful people while acknowleging they’re somehow intelligent, but the problem here is the film depicts Karen, her boyfriend and her partners brother as being too stupid to fully understand the consiquences of their actions. As a result, it feels less like we’re laughing at the situation and more that we’re being invited to jeer at people lower down on the social ladder.
The pacings a bit up and down, I found myself clock watching by the hour mark, and while the musical numbers do help kick things back into life, MOST of this film could be summed up as ‘Karen Matthews swears and makes grim monologues about her various ‘encounters’ while her boyfriend plays the stooge and makes overt pedo references’.
It ends rather abruptly too, and the resolution doesnt really feel nearly all that satisfying, which…given how these peoples ACTUAL real lives ended up as of 2024…is bizarre frankly. Karen Matthews went on to become a born again christian, and your telling me you DIDNT do a ‘virgin mary’ joke?…wild…honestly wild.
The entire script is very surface level on details, I actually found it quite dissapointing that an opportunity to REALLY make something controversial and interesting got boiled down to whats presented here honestly.
All the way through this film, I kept thinking back to the works of John Waters, and more specifically ‘Female Trouble’ which deals with similar themes. I feel like Waters film worked better because the characters are all larger than life, strange, but most importantly, cartoonish. They’re removed from reality. Here, the characters are simultaineously playing grotesque characatures of themselves, while also being bedded in a largely real story that actually happened. I think that contrast ultimately stops the audience from really fully investing in the work…it certainly did that with me.
The films biggest crime isnt that its offensive or shocking, its that its lazy. its not so much flogging a dead horse, more flogging the marrow. It picks 3-4 topics and mines them till theres literally nothing left. and thats a real pity as I feel the worlds sincerely missing an intelligent or considered take on controversial or sensationalist subjects. Something this film unfortunately doesnt do.
Adding to the woes, the direction is pretty mixed, an overeliance on greenscreen and plug ins left me feeling conflicted, as some moments were deleriously daft, while others felt remarkably cheap. there seems to be only 2-3 locations used in the entire film, with the rest of the production shooting outdoors (likely as a cost saving exercise) and the scenes dont really go much further than ‘locked off shot of living room in a wide, which we digitally zoom into via actual zooms, or hard cuts.’
The cine is overly basic, very little variety in shot types are present, and theres almost no moments of telling the narrative via the cinematography here at all. The colour correction is decidedly drab, with little in the way of style or distinction. and the edit isnt particularly tight, and doesnt utilize nearly enough B-roll, nor does it really get much more complex than cutting in and out of a wider framed shot.
On the performance front, the runaway star for me is Rob Kirtley, who plays the lead detective on the case. and he seems to know EXACTLY what kind of film this is, and the right tone to lean into on his animation and delivery. he’s bright, lands a significant proportion of his lines and feels like a Vic and Bob character got transferred into the film in some way. easily the best moments of the film are when he’s on screen, its just a shame the material he has to work with isnt as solid as his performance.
Samantha Hindman as well as directing stars as Karen Matthews here…and she’s passable in my opinion. VERY one note, essentially just playing a stereotypical gobby council estate woman. every 3rd word she says is a strong swear word, and intimate discussions and descriptions of her vagina wore thin after 10 minutes. In some regards, Id say she nailed the brief of what was asked of her…because…well, this IS what was asked of her…But at the same time, much like Kirtley, I feel like had she had better lines, or if her character was expanded on beyond a total surface level interpretation, there maybe would have been more for her to sink her teeth into.
The remaining cast are all playing it either comedically over-thick, basically doing ‘Gumby’ from Monty Python. or its cardboard. theres no middleground. and let me tell you, it gets insufferable VERY quickly.
Probably the best element of this whole production has to be the score, which was almost entirely written by ‘Kunt and the Gang’ and its pretty solid truthfully, with such hits as ‘You’re a Peadophile’ and ‘Shannon aint dead (she’s under my bed)’ theyre very one note, arnt particularly clever…But my GOD do they get the point across. catchy too. they’re not all great, some tracks are downright irritating. but when its THIS film, your talking about, you take what mercy’s you can get.
I can tell the EXACT audience this film is targeting, and it isnt me. had it been a bit clerverer in its lampooning and take downs, i’d have probably been a bit more invested in this. But the films SO wed to REPEATEDLY banging onto the same 3-4 topics across the whole runtime, it felt like being repeatedly smashed in the face with a barstool.
This film will only be offensive to the folks who would have been offended by even just the title of this film. But to me? this was just kind of dull, a half dozen funny moments sprinkled across a 90 minute runtime and very little else to show for it. I cant honestly recommend it. I probably wont watch it again, and I really wished it had been better.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/shannon-matthews-the-musical-the-movie/
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