Here is the hit of the Beloit Film Festival, a British road comedy that is fueled by the plot’s ability to amuse, although only occasionally.
“Above the Clouds” finally obtains a wide release via the multitude of free streaming TV platforms which are desperate for content (I watched it on Tubi), and May have missed the mark or gone unnoticed prior to the Pandemic. For example, I am not sure if it’s a popular Big name in Beloit, Wisconsin, I just know it screened there. In 2019.
The film centers on a comically quirky and slightly rebellious only child, played with perk and pluck and patter by Naomi Morris. Charlotte (or “Charlie” as she prefers) calls her father by his first name, defies Dad Jack’s decree that Art is NOT a career, and is again late for her seaside café waitress job in Margate.
While musing over her favorite painting, a diptych of two parts she sits next to a stinky drunkard who fills the other panel while she’s stuck in the center of a hopeless metropolis. In the background, there is a bright light shining over puffy happy clouds.
As Andrew Murton puts it: Even if you’re being pissed on down here, it’s always sunny above the clouds. And what of him being homeless and “invisible” to a public who has learned to look straight past him? Don’t worry.
Charlie remembers coming across what was supposed to be a secret birthday card. A card signed by Dad but not in her dull father’s handwriting. When her parents went off on an anniversary holiday, her mother Cordelia Bujega went missing. And when she rummages for more digging looking for “real” dad, Clyde who lives in Scotland, she gets pitched by her sole friend Leah Hackett who she works with, and turns down her offer for them to go “find him.” And that articulate, homeless wino? She has other uses for him.
He’s the “responsible adult” who can accompany her as she takes the new Fiat 500 Dad Jack left for her in the garage up north to search for her genuine genetic roots. In the words of her friend Leah, a little bit mad.
On the road and off the leash, I know where she will be. One of those illogical leaps only a screen comedy would try to pass off.
Charlie daydreams about if she has a real father, arguing that her dad could be an actor or an earl. Oz picks out important decisions using a technique that he likes to call, asking the Queen which involves tossing a coin. He also tries very hard to show off to the teenagers by sharing his ‘worldly’ knowledge.
What are the two biggest moments in a kid’s life? Both give them immense insight into family life, for the first is when you Celia and I’m always right, and the second is when you come to face the truth, that we, parents, are not always wrong.
Regardless of how skeptical Charlie is about her father, she will investigate her true origins as her wish is to become an acclaimed artist. Oz remembers in little bits to explain why he dislikes cars and what his sad sad secret is.
Always more a film you are pleased to have watched than one you believe in is “Above the Clouds.” The comical “challenges” are good enough. They just aren’t numerous and in conclusion, do not go far enough over the top.
Sheltered Charlotte has never filled up a car in her life. Therefore, we can understand why Fiat captures the title of Fix It Again, Tony in the English-speaking world. There is some comedy in leaving “the yellow casualty” with the grumpy Scots mechanic (Gordon Kennedy) that she does.
Being stranded in a place where the locals use for “snogging” makes them cross paths with a strange solitary exhibitionist (Ian Bustard).
Moments like these and more, along with a handful of expected road comedy cliches, are what Simon Lord might think would put a smile on one’s face in his screenplay that spawned from director Leon Chambers’ malnourished story. There is no such thing as too much banter and decorations.
The entire road comedy feels as if it was pieced together last minute, including the resolution to the “mysteries.” But Murton and Morris, making her screen debut, do make the trip to the destination somewhat enjoyable, if not surprising in the slightest.
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