SOME of the best ideas are the simplest ones, and that has proved to be a winning equation with The Crooked Mile, which has won acclaim from both film critics and audiences alike.

Nowhere was the film more well received than at the Jersey Arts Centre, where, as part of the International Arts Festival in September 2001, it premiered in the Island where it was made to two packed houses. The Crooked Mile made the most of Jersey’s natural scenery, and has helped to make the Island a focal point for other film crews and production companies since it was filmed so successfully in Jersey.

The touching storyline centres on Anna, a nine year old girl, determined to find her father, but the only clue she has of him is a picture that her mother keeps pinned to the wall. When Anna’s mother falls ill, Anna is given a chance to discover more about her identity, which has been hidden from her.

What Anna doesn’t know is that the handsome chap who accompanies them from home to home is the film star James Dean, not her father, who just isn’t around anymore. But Anna, armed with the innocence of childhood, coupled with a desire for adventure, sets off with her beloved goldfish Jaws, and an unlikely companion in the shape of her neighbour, Elliott, to discover her father’s wheareabouts.

On screen, the two make an unlikely but charismatic duo, and Elliott proves to be a companion and strength for Anna when she learns the hard lesson that sometimes getting what you want isn’t always what you hoped it might be, or lead you to a better life than the one you have.

Anna finds out who James Dean really is from a bored waitress working in a Fifties-inspired café, and finds that her real father has none of glamour associated with the film star. What he does have is a marriage, a pampered young son and absolutely no desire to make Anna a part of his life.

It is a wiser Anna, and a thoughtful Elliott who make their way back to where they really belong, but not before they have met a few comical characters along the way.

Louise V Nibbs