Here is a sincere and traditional melodrama that opens with a brief sequence that slightly wrongfoots the audience: a small child running at night through a setting that calls to mind little Danny in the hedge maze in The Shining. But this is no horror movie; there is past trauma and tragedy a-plenty, but for the most part, this is a warm-hearted drama that plays out like a modern Mr Chips story.
Based on the real life of the protagonist Nate (Nicholas Hamilton), a delinquent youth in 1980s America, the film’s focus is on his relationship with drama teacher Mr Deen (Jared Harris); Deen is a likable but lonely man whose tendency to generosity reaches its apogee when he takes on Nate as a personal project after a series of bad choices by the troubled teen. Deen reveals at one point that as a youngster he harboured acting ambitions, with James Dean a particular touchstone, and indeed the film could almost be a Dean movie – Nate’s fondness for leather jackets and emotional outbursts strike a familiar note.
True, Nate’s refusal to take no for an answer when rejected by his girlfriend strikes a slightly sour note, and it’s interesting that when more of his backstory is finally revealed, Brave the Dark doesn’t seek to push any generational parables. However, it’s to the film’s credit all round that while it functions as a fairly broad-brush drama with plenty of heightened emotion and sentimental moments, it never becomes a didactic message movie – it’s too rooted in personal dynamics. After all, it comes from a personal place: the script is co-written by the real-life Nate, and it’s a lovely tribute to the actual Mr Deen, who died in 2016. It’s a shame he never got to see Harris’s take on him, because, as ever with Harris, it’s a really fine performance.
● Brave the Dark is on digital platforms from 15 September.