Lad, A Yorkshire Story

Plot

The setting of the movie is the Yorkshire Dales, a picturesque rural area in northern England.

After David (played by Liam Thomas), a quarry worker and the father of the Proctors family, passes away suddenly, his wife, Sarah (played by Nancy Clarkson), and two sons, Nick (played by Robert Hayes) and Tom (played by Bretten Lord), struggle to save their mortgaged from foreclosure by the bank.

Thirteen-year-old Tom, who is the youngest of the two sons, can’t stand the financial pressure that his family suffers.

While his brother is about to join the Army Cadets, Tom’s grief for his father’s unexpected death combined with the fact that the whole family is in dire straits cause him to do something reckless.

He steals a tractor with a load of manure, and sprays the manure outside of the bank’s local branch.

For this, he gets community service with Al (played by Alan Gibson), a National Park ranger.

The question is, will the Proctors be ripped apart as a family, or fight back and its living members take back their lives and save the day?

Those who can’t leave and get away

There are difficult situations in life where people try to seek ways to escape, because finding an escape seems to be the only way to resolve the problem.

However, there are those who are left behind, and who can’t follow the lucky ones for various reasons.

Those ones can’t escape.

What about them?

After someone dies, it is natural for their family and friends to grieve for them and experience the loss, but the truth is that the deceased has “escaped” the sorrows of life once for all.

An elder brother may be “lucky” enough to leave and join the Army, but a younger brother has no other option but stay and suffer the consequences.

A fighting widow

As soon as her husband’s dies, Sarah takes control of the situation.

She loses no time.

At first, she bursts into tears and cries, when two police officers break the sad news to her while watching her young son playing soccer.

But then, the healing power of time and a mother’s strong instinct of survival and taking care of her children transform her into a warrior of life.

She refuses to surrender, and escalates her efforts rather than sitting back and accepting faith.

She doesn’t hesitate to learn to drive a truck, because she understands that working as a truck driver will help her solve her financial problems and keep her home.

Deus ex machina twice

Sometimes, when there seems to be no escape from a situation, a helping hand from above offers an unexpected solution.

This hand took their husband and father away, and it is the same hand that helps them stand on their feet again.

Divine providence alone does not suffice, as God helps those who help themselves.

If she wants to survive, Sarah has to learn a new skill, that is driving a heavy truck, which is unheard of in a rural community like hers.

Similarly, Tom and his father had been collecting rocks for years, and selling his collection of rocks that he loves so much will provide the money for the family to stay afloat.

Sources: Lad, A Yorkshire Story-Wikipedia-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lad,_A_Yorkshire_Story

Rating: 83/100