Please Come Home

A grieving father and daughter try to come to terms with their loss in their own ways, very far apart from each other.

Early on in Please Come Home, there’s a lot of positivity in the air. Ann (Fenton) has just got word that she’s been accepted into university and both Mum (Arnott) and Dad (Benton) are over the moon about the good news. Very soon though, the reality hits Dad that this means his little girl will no longer be living at home.

Bright positivity then gives way to bleak grey monochrome as we find Dad, Harry, home alone talking to himself. He’s actually talking to an urn on the dining table which he picks up and takes with him everywhere, well, from the kitchen to the sofa anyway. Life is very different for Harry now, and after scaring himself one night during a bout of nostalgia, he calls his little girl to try and reach out.

Ann, unfortunately, is not doing very well with the loss of her mother, either. She has been avoiding talking to her father, and any kind of affection he does offer is rejected outright or deftly avoided. For Ann it’s as though she has lost both of her parents because she no longer knows how to identify or relate to the one that is still there. In her time of need, she picks up the phone and calls a Bereavement Support helpline.

Writer, producer and star of Please Come Home, Charlotte Fenton, says that she drew a lot of inspiration from a difficult period in her life where she, too, was dealing with profound loss. During this time, Charlotte sought the support of Cruse Bereavement, who helped her to find healing and hope, and Please Come Home is a tribute to them as well as the work they do.

From the start, it’s easy to see that Please Come Home has been well produced. Director, Daymon Britton, and DoP, Ali Hutchinson, move the camera around fluidly and get the most out of their scenes and one-room locations. The pared back score from Jordan Pace hints at a deeper tragedy than we’re seeing and lends an extra gravity to the visuals, while the sound design of the background noise, which adds so much texture to each scene, is also flawless. Then there is, of course, the consummate professionalism of Mark Benton (Waterloo Road, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Cyrano, Chicken Run etc.), who easily imbues Harry with a sense of humanity and realism, and encourages those around him to work at his level.

There’s a lot to take from the twelve-minutes of Please Come Home while it’s on screen, and perhaps a whole lot more that stays with you once it’s not. Charlotte and Ann’s experience is one which will be identifiable to many up and down the country, and Please Come Home does a lot to raise awareness of the fact that help is out there for those who are suffering, as well as telling a genuine, heartfelt story along the way.