"“Rufus Norris does a wonderful job in striking the perfect balance between comedy and tragedy...”"

Based on the recent Daniel Clay novel of the same name, Broken is director Rufus Norris' debut feature film, and one that takes a fascinating– if a little melodramatic - look into the lives of three neighbouring North London families, through the watchful, curious eyes of an 11-year-old girl.

The young girl in question is Skunk (Eloise Laurence), living with her older brother Jed (Bill Milner), father Archie (Tim Roth) and live-in nanny Kasia (Zana Marjanovic) in their suburban home. The family are certainly the more settled of the three, as the vulgar neighbours from hell – championed by violent father Bob (Rory Kinnear), get into a spot of bother with the pacifist family across the road, when Bob's daughter falsely accuses the mentally disabled Rick (Robert Emms) of raping her.

Bob loses his temper and attacks the defenceless man, while Skunk – a friend of Rick's – watches desperately on. Suddenly there is a dark mist cast over this small community, as neighbours turn on one another to devastating consequences. Meanwhile, Skunk is starting secondary school, as she must get to grips with this dramatic change in her life, while attempting to overcome her feelings towards teacher and boyfriend of Kasia, Mike (Cillian Murphy).

Norris does a wonderful job in striking the perfect balance between comedy and tragedy, as despite the drama and devastation that exists within this title, such upsetting sequences are counteracted by some jovial, endearing moments. Often when combining such conflicting styles it doesn't work as they can devalue the other – but in this instance it avoids contrivance, as Norris carefully highlights the quirks and eccentricities that come with everyday life, those that exist regardless of the situation.

For example in the affecting scene where we witness Rick returning home from the psychiatric hospital, his mother bakes a terribly lopsided cake, managing to find some light-relief amidst the devastation. The cake isn't the only quirky and surreal aspect either – as we have the random twins who cycle around the area throwing bags of excrement at misfortunate victims.

The performances are all of a high standard, although the character of Mike does appear somewhat superfluous to the overall story. Often when the lead role in a film is a youngster you do fear the worst, convinced they're just going to grate on you – think Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – but not in this instance, if anything it's the opposite as you grow rather fond of Skunk; a kindhearted, gracefully naïve individual. Laurence impresses in her debut performance, showing signs of maturity – imperative in the role as Skunk shows such signs herself. On the whole Norris does a fine job in depicting the naivety of youth, sincerely portraying young love, and the unmanageable fear when being targeted by bullies at school.

However despite all of the positives, Broken does come across as being far too melodramatic, becoming almost like a soap opera as we reach the latter stages of the film, as we struggle to maintain our belief in the overall narrative. You can't help but question whether this amount of drama could really occur to one small neighbourhood over such a short period of time. The local police force may have to call in back-up from Albert Square to keep everyone in check.