Up and Down

This low budget Brit thriller follows all the standard Hollywood plot devices (feisty heroine, troubled hero, child-in-jeopardy, bad-boy villains) but uses a gritty, urban Northern English council estate as a backdrop.

After a fairly gripping start, Downtime settles into a formulaic scenario - four people trapped in a lift, hanging by threads. The script clunks from time to time, the bad boys are given no character development, and the 'quirky' hero quickly becomes irritating and cliched. Credit though to Susan Lynch for making Chrissy naturalistic and believable. She holds the entire film together, and gives it three stars.