Sew Torn Review (Glasgow Film Festival 2025)

Some of you may the 1998 film Run Lola Run, a fun, experimental thriller that offered three alternative story outlines depending on the choices made by its heroine. Freddy Macdonald’s Sew Torn would make a unique companion piece with Run Lola Run. Another film that opts for multiple story routes, it ultimately ends up exploring similar themes of choice and how they can collectively amount to destruction or salvation.

Barbara Duggen (Caroline Goodall). It is during a particularly bad appointment with Grace that Barbara loses a button she is stitching to Grace’s wedding dress, and thus must race back to her shop.

As she is driving however, Barbara comes across a strange scene: two motorcyclists, having seemingly crashed into each other, fighting on the tarmac with guns and a briefcase of money next to them. Clearly a drug deal gone wrong, given the cocaine on the ground, Barbara is faced with a three-way dilemma. She could either call the police, steal the money or drive away. The film divides its three acts into these three choices, exploring the consequences of each choice.

Run Lola Run has been read by many as a commentary on free will versus fate or determinism. Sew Torn explores similar ideas, as Barbara’s potential routes appear just as catastrophic as the next. But there’s a melancholic undercurrent to the picture, Macdonald’s direction brimming with comion for Barbara and her impossible situation. Barbara is a lonely woman in dire need of a break, desperate and grieving after her mother’s ing. There is a loneliness to her that keeps her engaging, even as she’s making ill-judged decisions. When the film brings her face to face with Joshua (Calum Worthy), the son of a powerful drug kingpin, the themes of loneliness and displacement only resonate brighter, their unlikely connecting a rare bright spot in an otherwise suspenseful feature.

Instead of appearing wholly bleak though, the film leans into the fantastical elements of this plotline. The bright colours and wide, picturesque landscapes of the Swiss countryside give the cinematography an almost fairytale quality to it. Meanwhile, Barbara finds herself utilising her sewing kit, and endless supply of thread, to help her orchestrate her plans in each of the three hypothetical scenarios. The contraptions she invents are as complex as they are ridiculous – with many perfectly predicting the movements of her targets despite the limited time window – yet the results produce macabre enjoyment as the film jovially basks in the creative carnage. Barbara would make an excellent member of The A-Team, yet these threaded Home Alone-esque devices highlight the playful tone that the film opts for. Its themes are hard hitting, even existential, but the film maintains a stylish sense of chaos – the frantic editing and bizarre setpieces becoming dizzying but never nonsensical. It’s just the right amount of absurd while remaining grounded on a humanist front.

At the core of the picture is a wonderful, quietly layered performance from Eve Connolly. The film wastes no time in generating sympathy for Barbara as her meek demeanour and dated clothing cause her to stand out like a sore thumb. If Carrie White had never developed telekinesis, she may have ended up like Barbara. Yet there is a quiet tenacity to her, as bursts of resentment or ingenuity rise to the surface when her back is against the wall. Connolly juggles vulnerability and bravery alike in this role, her subdued expressions and willingness to play along with the film’s more bizarre visuals and developments amounting to a riveting presence on screen.

Sew Torn does somewhat suffer from its crossroads-like storytelling. Repeated use of dialogue showing up in each narrative feels ham-fisted at best, while certain antagonistic characters, namely Grace and the drug kingpin, get little to no development as a result of the limited time frame each plot line has. Some may also find the sewing based inventions of Barbara’s require a bit too much suspension of disbelief, even if they generally buy into the fantasy tone of the picture.

Thankfully, these are small ruffles in an otherwise colourful, tightly woven tapestry. Sew Torn is a delightfully idiosyncratic crime thriller that strings together compelling themes, humorously odd visuals, and a magnetic central performance. Anyone looking for a strange but entertaining picture need look no further.

★★★

Played Part of 2025 Glasgow Film Festival / Digital 31st March 2025 (UK) / Vertigo Releasing / Even Connolly, Calum Worthy, John Lynch,  Caroline Goodall, Werner Biermeier / Dir:Freddy MacDonald /15