The Fold (2013) Online

When The Fold begins, you learn that a teenage girl has drowned. The story then skips ahead 11 months and you then learn that the dead girl's mother, Rebecca, is an Anglican priest and the family has moved to the countryside. However, it's odd that Rebecca would be a priest and move to a new parish to serve considering that she isn't much good to others. This is because she is very screwed up and will not allow herself to get past her daughter's death. She is clearly stuck—stuck in her marriage and stuck finding something productive with her life. A bit later, this clueless priest does some community volunteer work, although this isn't her choice—she's more forced into it. However, working with these high-risk teens suddenly becomes important to her because the psychologically damaged Rebecca has taken a very volatile migrant worker, Radka, under her wing. But Rebecca is a mess—and instead of offering help or being professional, she begins to dream of Radka taking the place of the dead daughter. There are some serious problems with this—most notably that Rebecca already has another daughter—a daughter she is neglecting and who needs her. She also ignores lots and lots of warning signs that Radka is a screwball herself. Radka is VERY explosive, manipulative and often attempts suicide—possibly to manipulate others or because she is a serious danger to herself. In psychological terms, she shows a lot of Borderline Personality traits and really needs professional help, not a well- meaning but completely inept priest. Where does all this lead? See the film if you are interested. Not that I said 'if you are interested'. This might be a problem because despite the subject matter, the film was curiously uninvolving and I had a hard time sticking with this one. I think much of it is because Rebecca was one of the more pathetic priests and mothers I've seen in a film and her cluelessness seemed bizarre for someone whose job is helping others—especially because she is so unprofessional. It makes you think she became a priest by correspondence school—not by being an ordained member of the clergy. Making Rebecca a little less clueless and Radka a little less obviously dangerous would have made for a more believable film. As a result, the plot seemed mildly interesting but flawed. As for the acting and film making, it was pretty good but very, very low energy. Not a bad film overall but one that just left me awfully cold and unsatisfied. Additionally, when the film ended, there were many, many unanswered questions—too many.

The Fold has a plausible story line, good acting, promising new young actors, good photography and stunning location scenery.

At the beginning, Rebecca's daughter has drowned. The pool-side table is littered with beer bottles and wine glasses. We are reminded of this several times later on and perhaps the parents bear some responsibility. A sub-title tells viewers that 11 unexplained months later, Rebecca (Catherine McCormack) and her surviving daughter Eloise (Dakota Blue Richards) come to a tiny parish church on the Cornwall coast.

Rebecca gets a part-time job at a drop-in centre in the near-by town. There, she meets Radka, from Bulgaria, who works at a huge daffodil farm and would like to go on an arts course. Rebecca offers to coach her for the required language test. Radka has problems. She has cut her wrists before, and pulls a knife on a boyfriend who she has seen talking to another girl, his cousin actually. Radka resents seeing Rebecca talking to her husband. When Radka attacks Eloise, Rebecca has to choose between comforting her traumatised daughter or rescuing Radka from the cold surf she has dived in to.

There is only one funny scene - shock and scandal when Rebecca and Radka are found asleep on the cold stone floor of the vestry.

Rebecca smokes. Does the writer really think that makes the character real? That is so unlikely for a priest.

Not really an Oscar contender, but a worthwhile look at personal relationship issues.

Though some reviewers have found this story implausible and unconvincing I have to say that for me its story of a woman who, after losing her daughter, is so distraught by grief and guilt that she jeopardises her other surviving daughter, largely worked. The poor decisions she makes seem a result of how consumed by mourning she is: I think you get a sense of how corrosive loss can be, and that inside she is blown apart. Personally, while it is true that certain aspects of the story seem left out or compressed, as a viewer I felt I could adequately fill them in. However, for a film that seems to want to be broadly sympathetic to immigrant labour, it could have fleshed the Bulgarian characters out more convincingly.

For me a large reason why it worked was because Catherine McCormack's central performance is committed and convincing. The girl playing her daughter is also good, though some of the other actors' performances in the film rather hamper it unfortunately. As a result some sections are laboured and stilted with poor dialogue. However, other things that made the film work for me were the evocative cinematography, which tried to capture the surrounding lanes and countryside, and the involving use of haunting music; all these made it for me a film worth watching.

This film is simple but totally boring i have to say this because it is not only hard to sit through but because of the main characters stupidity.

The Plot:a priest tries to become friend with a young girl as she reminds her of her dead daughter soon this friendship turns bad as the girl is totally cray and insane.

The Cast:well what can i say Dakota Blue Richards and Catherine Mccormak these two Ladies gave some good performances.

The male lead actors and editing section are some areas that went wrong in every way i am not talking about the smoking scene or beach scenes those boring conversations between priest and some useless random guys could have been edited out.

The script had potential but the director lost focus the main problem was not with the girl Radka but with Rebbecca who was bent on trusting her knowing Radka is nuts and always tries to put herself and others in danger the character Rebbecca looses sympathy from the viewer even i kept waiting uttering what the hell is she doing wasting her time,Radka needed a mental asylum not some school or rehab center.

Looks like the makers clearly wanted to used the idiom "can't help it" as some of the scenes are truly made to annoy the audience members.

Who is confused here obviously Rebbecca she cant make a single good decision now at the climax i laughed out hard at those intentionally hilarious scenes that try too hard to make the project look serious enough.

Overall The Fold 2013 is a wasted effort with below average results my rating is 3/10.