18, 95mins

When we first meet Hallam Foe (impressively inhabited by the Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell), he’s more feral creature than teenage boy. Crouching like a cat in the branches of the trees, binoculars in hand, he scans the lives of his friends and family for the answers to the questions that cloud his mind. What is the truth behind the death of his mother? Did his stepmother Verity have a hand in what seemed to be a tragic accident?

It’s a testament to Bell’s growing talent that we can accept this half-crazed boy in a badger-skin headdress and warpaint as the lead, and to the director David Mackenzie’s skill as a guide as the film evolves into something akin to an offbeat romantic comedy. Troubled by a confrontation with Verity, Hallam flees his Highland home for Edinburgh. After a few nights on the streets, he realises that he’s better suited to the roofs – the opportunities for voyeurism are boundless in this Gothic playground of ghostly grey turrets. One day he spots Kate (Sophia Myles), a hotel worker who bears a striking resemblance to his dead mother. He follows her to her place of work and wheedles his way into a job, finding friends among the outcasts in the kitchens. To his joy, the static crackle of flirtation between him and Kate seems about to ignite into an affair, something her married lover is not happy about.

Even in the earthiest moments of the film, there’s a sense of magic that reflects the filter of Hallam’s innocence, eccentricity and otherness. Not everything works – a scene in which Hallam and Kate trade slang terms for genitals in some kind of odd courtship ritual is a little forced – but the originality of this unexpectedly upbeat rites-of-passage film is a breath of fresh air.

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