Kelly + Victor

It looks like director Kieran Evans is setting himself up for a career on the fringes. After being behind the camera for two Isle Of Wight festival documentaries, Evans has two features this year: The Outer Edges explores the lives of those who live on the boundaries of society that Underworld's Karl Hyde encountered every day when recording his solo album, and this dark drama adapted from Niall Griffiths novel.

We don't know anything about Kelly (Campbell-Hughes) or Victor (Morris) when they meet in a Liverpudlian club, but their chemical-fuelled smiles suggest instant attraction. Kelly takes Victor home and they fall into bed. But this isn't stuff of cuddliness. Kelly and Victor don't make love - they tear into each other, with Kelly strangling Victor within an inch of his life. Of course, it's the best sex of their lives but when it comes to upping the ante things get darker and rougher...

It's intense stuff. Evans creates a tiny, closed off world for Kelly and Victor to play around in. Victor might have his sister and his buddy's burgeoning drug dealer business to branch into, and Kelly moonlights as a S&M mistress to earn extra cash while ducking the advances of her abusive ex-husband to flesh out her character, but Evans strives to create a claustrophobic atmosphere for his two lovers by consistently visually hemming them in: opening shot is a city sandwiched by two tower blocks, we first see Kelly as she peers out between two curtains, and scenes take place in alleyways, or between railings on a bridge. It works - despite subplots there is a general feeling that Kelly and Victor are alone together. It's odd too that the relationship is all sweetness and light outside the bedroom, with the two behaving like shy teenagers.

If things don't sit right it's because we don't really know anything about Kelly and Victor and so don't get why they're made for each other; their relationship doesn't come across as anything more than sexual, which would be fine if that's all it's supposed to be, but Evans wants it to run a whole lot deeper. Being cold and distant is acceptable, but when we're eventually asked to feel something there's nothing to draw from.

The two performances work. Antonia Campbell-Hughes (The Other Side Of Sleep, Albert Nobbs) has been quietly putting in solid work for years and her icy cool bounces off Julian Morris' warmth.