Review by David J Moore
Executive Produced by George Hopkin
Produced by A.D. Barker, Kate Horlor,
Adam Krajczynski, Michael Spiby
Written and Directed by A.D. Barker
Starring Leslie Simpson, Axelle Carolyn,
Daniel Tee, Marcus Green,
David Flint, Samantha Hoyle
“The last thing to go is habit.”
Virtually a one-man show, A Reckoning is about a former schoolteacher (Leslie Simpson) who appears to be the last man on Earth after an unspecified apocalypse.
He resolutely goes about his life in a state of desperate denial.
He goes to the school where he worked and gives his lectures to a classroom of straw children dressed in clothes he put on each of them, and he carries on each and every day in the same basic, sad manner.
He wounds himself by accident (he stabs the bottom of one of his feet), and this sets him back quite a bit.
Over time, he gradually goes insane, and at one point, he crosses paths with Death itself.
Desperately alone and lonely, he imagines his wife (or another woman – it isn’t clear) sleeping with him, but in the morning, the woman is only a straw woman. It’s sad, but sincere.
End of the world movies in this vein are no picnic.
Leslie Simpson is quite good in the physically and emotionally demanding lead role. This was written and directed by novelist A.D. Barker, who shot the film in two weeks at an abandoned RAF Base, just outside of Nottingham, England.
You can only hope that the characters find some kind of salvation or release by the end, and A Reckoning provides its character with a conclusion that seems fitting.
For more information visit the A Reckoning Facebook page.
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