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The Toll

41 votes

Brendan works solo shifts in the quietest toll booth in Wales, hiding from a criminal past where nobody would ever look. When he finally gets rumbled, word of his whereabouts gets out and his enemies head west for revenge. Meanwhile, local traffic cop Catrin’s investigation into a simple robbery finds her heading for the booth at exactly the wrong time.

Status: Released

Released Date: 2021-08-05

Runtime: 83 mins

Director: Ryan Andrew Hooper

Writer: Matt Redd

Spoken language: Français, Cymraeg, English

Genres: Comedy, Thriller, Crime

Original title: The Toll

Production Companies: Ffilm Cymru Wales, BFI, Great Point Media, Fields Park, Samuel Goldwyn Films

Production Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Cast

Michael Smiley

Annes Elwy

Gary Beadle

Iwan Rheon

Steve Oram

Evelyn Mok

Paul Kaye

Julian Glover

Darren Evans

Gwyneth Keyworth

Dewi Morris

Sarah Breese

Ioan Hefin

Hefin Rees

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Now I'm usually a fan of Welsh movies. They usually excel at making me laugh, and at not taking themselves at all seriously. Well this one - not so much! Michael Smiley ("Brendan") mans a remote toll port-a-cabin in west Wales where he is lucky to see three or four cars per day. Why would anyone want such a dull job? Well local police officer "Catrin" (Annes Elwy) arrives at his booth one night and he proceeds to explain all about his somewhat dodgy criminal past, and soon we are immersed in a retrospective style feature involving kidnapping, murder and the theft of some iDrops! The comedic elements, and there are some, raise a smile for a few minutes but that doesn't sustain 80 minutes as the film quite quickly runs out of steam. Iwan Rheon is underused, and the soundtrack offers us hope of an ending that simply doesn't deliver. The dialogue is unnecessarily ripe at times, there's little shock or entertainment value in that anymore - we are all just to anaethetised to it now. Clearly a labour of love for Matt Redd and Ryan Hooper, and I suppose that this is the kind of low budget film that the BFI ought to be funding; but just wait til it gets onto the small screen. No need at all to see this at a cinema.

2022-04-14

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