Synopsis
Anna is stuck: she’s approaching 30 and has just moved back to her rural home-town, and into a shed in her mother’s backyard. She spends her time working a menial job at a local boating center and hides in the depths of her imagination, making movies with her thumbs. Irritated by her childish behavior, Anna's mother insists that she move out of her shed and on with her life. When a troubled young boy starts hanging around, the two form an unlikely bond. Through their strange yet mutually beneficial friendship, Anna slowly begins to confront her perpetual state of arrested development.
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Cast
- Jodie WhittakerAnna
- Lorraine AshbourneMarion
- Brett GoldsteinBrendan
- Rachael DeeringFiona
- Eileen DaviesJean
- Alice LoweAlice
- Edward HoggThe Snorkeler
- Ozzy MyersClint
- Christian ContrerasHank
- David AndersonLuke
Recommendations
- 80
Empire
Witty and moving, this is a low-budget Brit triumph that marks its director as a talent to watch. - 70
Los Angeles Times
While Adult Life Skills could often use more focus, it digs deep to achieve a sense of catharsis, and as a woman who's trying to be invisible, but can't isolate herself forever, Whittaker (currently the Doctor on “Doctor Who”) carries the film. - 63
Movie Nation
The main reason people check this out will be Whittaker’s new role as Doctor Who. And she doesn’t disappoint. She gives this walking-wounded woman a hint of the coquette she never realized she was, a smartness informed by sadness and — with a little boy she’s utterly ill-qualified to baby sit, much less mentor — a purpose. - 60
Time Out London
How much you love this low-budget British effort will depend on your tolerance to quirkiness. - 60
CineVue
It is a kooky, touching, continually droll comedy drama that treads simultaneously familiar and unusual ground in its exploration of grieving for a sibling, more specifically a twin. - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
A relentlessly quirky British comedy-drama that demonstrates why more is not always more. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
While its protagonist is believably eccentric, the people surrounding her look more like transparent plot devices the more of them we meet. - 40
Variety
For the most part, the film is similarly content to repeat the past, all the way through to its predictable liberating-feel-good wrap-up.
