Sensation
The only child of an unmarried mother with no family, the identity of his father a subject never discussed, postman Andrew Cooper has unanswered questions about his ancestry and nobody to turn to, instead offering his DNA to the research project of Doctor Daniel Marinus in hopes of receiving insight, but instead all his participation merits is rudeness, deflection and an unwanted visitor at home.
Prompted to follow by curiosity and led into an ambush, Andrew comes to realise that he was not dismissed because his genetics are mundane but that he was singled out because they are remarkable, one of the chosen few who Doctor Marinus is seeking for his project, individuals whose particular affinities allows them not only to draw information from their environment but to receive and project that sensation into others.
A British science fiction thriller directed by Martin Grof from a script co-written with Magdalena Drahovska, it does not take superhuman perception to deduce that all is not right in the country mansion which doubles as Doctor Marinus’ research facility, which begs the question: why when they want compliance are so many characters in Sensation obstructive if not downright hostile when welcoming their subjects as guests would be more likely to inspire cooperation?
The fractious and evasive Doctor Marinus (Velvet Goldmine‘s Alastair G Cumming) coming across as nothing so much as a salesman desperate to make target who knows his product is worthless, the supposed super senses of Andrew (The Lodgers‘ Eugene Simon) fail to tingle when time and again he signs waivers without reading the text of the document then wonders why bad things are happening to him.
With Sacrilege‘s Emily Wyatt the personification of resting bitch face as Nadia, disapproving matron at Xavier’s School for Gullible Youngsters, Jennifer Martin is glacial vamp May, remarkably well preserved for someone implied to be the result of Nazi concentration camp experiments though an addiction to Botox might explain her inability to produce recognisable facial expressions.
Playing with the premise of Sense8 with occasional slips into the malleable realities of Inception, any potential of Sensation is squandered by the persistent idiocy displayed by the characters, Andrew allowing unchallenged entrance to his home by an individual masquerading as a police officer who introduces themselves with a lit cigarette in their hand and concluding in the illuminated front room of a ground floor London flat without curtains, a conspicuously public execution of what is conceived to be a supposedly untraceable crime.
Sensation is available on digital download from Friday 16th April
