Treacle Jr.

Treacle Jr. is a British 2011 film written and directed by Jamie Thraves.^[1] It was filmed on location in Southwark, London, England, United Kingdom.^[2]

Plot

The film opens with a man (Tom Fisher) sitting eating breakfast with his family. He drives away from his house to Birmingham New Street, where he boards a train; he gets off in London. He has probably been walking around all day, because it is nighttime when we see him finding a spot outside a shop and laying down to sleep. When he wakes up the next day, he goes to the park, where he throws his smart phone into a lake, opens his wallet, destroys his bank cards and throws them in the bin (along with his wallet with a family photo, but then he returns to retrieve it) and puts the money in his back pocket.

That night, he is sitting drinking cans of beer on a bench in the park, where he is mistaken for a gay man by a gang of youths; he tries to get away, but ends up running into a tree, knocking himself out.

He awakes the next morning and goes to A&E, while sitting in the waiting room, he hears a man (Aidan Gillen) talking loudly and disturbing the receptionist, the man then takes a seat next to Tom and starts to talk to him, asking him his name, he is then called through to see a doctor. Tom is next seen walking away from the hospital, but Aidan catches him up and proceeds to follow him.

Next, we see Tom and Aidan walking through a graveyard, Aidan tells Tom that he needs to go to the toilet, so he goes to urinate behind a tree, Tom, seeing his chance to escape, runs away from Aidan, while running, he is stopped in his tracks when he spots a couple having sex against one of the gravestones, he carries on running but accidentally runs into Aidan again. They carry on walking, when Tom suddenly faints, Aidan decides to take him back to his flat.

At Aidan’s flat, Aidan gives Tom a beer. While they are talking, Aidan's 'girlfriend' Linda (Riann Steele) comes home. Upon her arrival, Tom is shocked to discover (unbeknownst to her) that she is the woman he saw having sex in the graveyard with another man. She is not pleased that Aidan hardly made any money that day, so she punches him in the face, then she tells him to throw Tom (who she calls Lurch, in reference to the character from The Addams Family) out of the flat.

Tom leaves and goes to buy a cup of tea from a street vendor. He reaches for some money to pay, but his pocket is empty, so he goes back to the flat. Linda opens the door, he asks her if she has seen his money, but she says 'No', so he politely asks if he can come in and have a look around. Linda refuses and tells him to go away. As Tom walks away, Linda looks through the curtain on the door and smirks.

Tom goes back on the streets, he is seen begging various people for money. One man is kind enough to give him some change, so he uses it to buy a cup of tea from a café. While he is sitting there, the door burst open and in comes Aidan with a cat carrier. He asks the woman at the counter if he could talk to the manager about rats, hoping to release the cat to catch them (and make some cash). The manager lets him through to the back, but Tom spots the man throwing Aidan out into the back alley. Tom runs out of the shop and hears Aidan being beaten up, so he goes to investigate. He finds Aidan and tries to check if Aidan has a concussion. While they are talking, Aidan suddenly jumps up, realizing that the cat (Treacle), who belongs to one of Aidan’s elderly neighbors is missing. They go in search of the cat, eventually finding it dead... They then go to a pet shop and buy a kitten (which Aidan names Treacle Jr) and attempt to give it to the old lady who was the owner of the original cat, but she yells at them, telling them to go away, calling Aidan a 'F***** retard'.

Aidan takes Tom to a music shop where he shows him his dream drum kit that he is saving up for. As they walk away from the shop, Tom starts to get annoyed by Aidan and eventually tells him to leave him alone and takes off.

Tom is seen on the steps of the town hall, feeling depressed, he opens his wallet and takes out a picture of him with his family, when he does, a bank card falls out from behind the picture, Tom picks it up and rushes away to a cash machine.

Tom goes back to Aidan's flat, where he apologizes, Aidan accepts and Tom asks him if he can stay for a while and offers him 200 quid up from to rent the top bunk bed in Aidan's room (it is not clear how many months this money will get him, but the amount seems huge to Aidan). Aidan then tells Linda Tom is moving in and has paid 100 pounds up front (keeping 100 for himself to go towards his drumset savings), so Tom, Linda and Aidan then celebrate with a little party, Linda celebrating the income, Aidan celebrating the welcome company of a friend, Tom celebrating their acceptance, etc. During the party, when Aidan is drunk, Linda discovers that Aidan has received 200 pounds and not just the 100 hundred he had stated earlier. She is annoyed that she didn't know about Aidan’s keeping the extra money, but also realizes that Tom is, in her own words, "Mr. Moneybags" and a possible source of easy income. She finds Tom in the Kitchen, starts acting nice to him, tries to come on to him and then masturbates him, though against Tom's wishes. Tom is upset, put off, and wordlessly leaves the kitchen to go to bed. Linda realises this maneouvre has not exactly won him over.

The next day, Aidan takes Tom to visit the Horniman Museum, where they enjoy the natural history and musical instruments collections, and have fun making music in a section with instruments for the public's use.

Another day, Aidan goes to his savings account and takes out all his savings, but is spotted with the wad of money by the man Linda was having sex with in the graveyard (apparently a drug dealer, according to the movie credits, and who has possibly been following him since he left the house). As Aidan is walking home, he gets jumped from behind by the drug dealer, who steals the money Tom had given Aidan, actually all of Aidan's savings. Tom finds out what happened to Aidan and realizes from the description Aidan gives him that it was Linda's friend. Linda returns home with bags full of designer clothes. Tom then tells Aidan that Linda stole his money. Aidan shouts at Linda and she hits him and kicks him to the floor. While she is attacking him, Tom shouts "Leave him alone!", Leave him alone!", Linda tells him to shut up or she'll get one of her friends to cut his f*****g head off. Tom grabs a knife from the side and threatens Linda. He tells her that he'll kill her if she doesn't leave Aidan alone, grabbing her by the neck. In shock, Linda has an asthma attack. Aidan tries to get her inhaler, but he drops it and kicks it under the fridge, and Linda looks like she is going to choke to death as they scramble to get it back.

She recovers, but then Aidan kicks Linda out of the flat, which was apparently his, although it had seemed throughout that the flat was hers because of her domineering manner.

Final day, Aidan goes back to the music shop to see the drum kit he wants, but when he gets there, he finds out that it has been sold. Upset, Aidan goes home, finds the house empty, Tom gone and his key on the kitchen table, which makes him sit down to cry. But then he goes into his bedroom, where he finds the drum kit with a note from Tom, telling him that he bought it for him as a 'Thank you'. The film ends with Aidan happily playing the drums, Tom (we only see the view from Tom's eyes, through the camera) walks to a train platform and boards the train home.

Cast

• Tom Fisher as Tom
• Aidan Gillen as Aidan
• Riann Steele as Linda
• Chris Wade as Drug Dealer (and the man who steals Aidan's money)
• Judy Norman as Clairvoyant
• Carrie Cohen as Mrs Brophy, the elderly neighbour
• Cristina Catalina as Waitress
• Taylan Halici as Café Owner
• Liz Fleming as Ruby
• Spencer Cowan ^[3] as Honeytrap Thug
• Atli Gunnarsson as Thug
• Lucas Hansen as Thug
• Steven James Tyler as Thug

Reception

It currently holds an 83% positive review on Rotten Tomatoes.^[4]

References

External links

• Treacle Jr. at AllMovie
• Treacle Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
• Treacle Jr. at Rotten Tomatoes