Second Coming (15)

Directed by Debbie Tucker Green

3/5

THE STORY of the “immaculate conception” is given a modern-day suburban twist in this fascinating drama about the lives and struggles of a middle- class London family, which poses the question whether Jax (Nadine Marshall) is pregnant with the second coming or about to spawn the devil. 

The beauty of Bafta-winning playwright Debbie Tucker Green’s directorial film debut is that it keeps viewers in the dark, teasing them with snippets of information throughout her pregnancy. But Green leaves it to the audience to join up the dots.

At the film’s opening, benefits officer Jax seeks advice from her best friend and colleague Bernie (Sharlene Whyte) about getting an abortion although the A-word is never mentioned.

Jax is pregnant with her second child. But the problem is she hasn’t had sex with her husband Mark (Idris Elba) in months — or anyone else for that matter. Plus she isn’t able to have any more children after numerous miscarriages.

Elba gives a powerful and convincing performance as a father and husband exhausted from work who is striving to come to terms with his home life. There are glimpses of a dangerous edge below the surface of his family-loving demeanour, while Marshall is soulful as a troubled woman who is busy juggling work and home while crippled by her guilty secret which results in nose bleeds and hallucinations. Both, along with Kai Francis-Lewis as their 11-year-old son JJ, make for a believably close-knit family.

It is unusual but refreshing to see a British middle-class black family depicted on the big screen and Green delivers a wonderful slice of family-life drama, with scenes around the breakfast and dinner table among the highlights of an intriguing socio-realist drama which poses a fascinating conundrum.