There's Always Hope

COLM Meaney, (Hell on Wheels), Kate Ashfield (Shaun of the Dead) and newcomer Hannah Chinn, feature in this family drama focusing on a successful author Jonathan Stack (Meaney). So obsessed with trying to pen his magnum opus, he has let his marriage to Samantha (Ashfield), who is also his agent and editor, break down to the point where she announces she is leaving him for her business partner.

Snapping him out of midlife malaise, Jonathan abandons the elegant family home in the affluent Stratford Upon Avon, revving up his ancient Jaguar XK150 to head to the family villa in Portugal. Enter Hope (Chinn), his young daughter, who cannot make any sense of what is going on, so she abandons her studies to pursue her father for answers. While in Portugal she finds the truth is more complicated, but one thing is clear, her parents still love each other, and she is determined to reunite them.

This prosaic piece shines a light on the bind of family ties and how we often overlook the people and things that are most dear to us on the endless pathway to success.