| Director | Lynne Ramsay |
|---|---|
| Genre | coming-of-age film, drama film |
| Runtime | 94 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Budget | £2 million |
| Box office | $888,817 |
In 1970s Glasgow, Scotland, Ryan Quinn entangles himself in curtains before his mother reprimands and readies him to visit his father. Ryan instead chooses to run off and play with his friend James Gillespie at the canal. After James' head is held underwater by Ryan as a prank, James retaliates by pushing him into the canal where he resultantly drowns. With no apparent witnesses, James flees but experiences profound guilt from the incident.
The Quinn and Gillespie families live in a dilapidated Glasgow council estate which is frequently strewn with refuse. The former are soon re-homed; before leaving the estate, Ryan's mother gives James a pair of brown sandals she had bought for him on the day of his death, which James purposefully scratches with a piece of broken glass.
James, more sensitive than other boys of his age, tries to make sense of his hometown's harsh environment. He encounters the local gang bullying a girl, Margaret Anne, as they throw her glasses into the canal; James does nothing. He soon joins the gang (despite their threat of being thrown into the canal) and watches as the rest of them sexually abuse her. When James is offered a turn, he lies fully clothed on her as she strokes his head tenderly.
James later takes a bus to the end of its route on the outskirts of Glasgow, where he explores a new housing estate under construction. Standing in front of a kitchen window in a half-built house, he is awestruck by the view of an expansive wheat field blowing in the wind. He then climbs through the window and escapes into the field.
Kenny, a simple boy and friend of James, receives a pet mouse as a birthday present. After the gang throw the mouse around in the air to make him "fly," Kenny asks James where he would fly to. James, trying to prevent the gang from throwing it at the wall, suggests the Moon. Kenny then ties the mouse's tail to a balloon and releases it as the boys watch. In a fantastical shift, the film shows the mouse floating to the Moon, where it soon joins a colony of mice.
Kenny later falls in the canal trying to catch a perch and is rescued by James' father, who becomes a local hero and is given a medal for bravery. While his father is in a deep sleep following the rescue, James allows in council inspectors tasked with assessing merit for rehousing; in his disheveled state, his father makes a poor impression on the inspectors. He berates James for the mistake and says that their likely rehousing rejection would be his son's fault.
After receiving the medal, his father goes out drinking with friends. He also buys a pair of cleats for James, presumably to mend their relationship. The local gang happens upon James' father on the way home and slashes him with a switchblade. When he returns home drunk and injured, he forcefully offers the cleats to James, who rejects them. As James's mother tries to tend to his father's injuries, he slaps her as the family watch on. James throws the cleats at him before fleeing to Margaret Anne's home; she and James become close and find comfort in each other's company. As the two embrace in bed, she asks him if he loves her, which he confirms.
The Army eventually arrive to remove the increasingly abundant refuse from the neighbourhood. After failing to recover Margaret Anne's glasses from the canal, James sees her with the local gang, who are once again taking turns sexually abusing her. James snaps at Kenny, saying that he killed his own mouse. Kenny retaliates with taunts toward Margaret Anne and the revelation that he witnessed James accidentally kill Ryan, both of which enrage James.
After a tender moment with his sister, James wakes early and goes to the canal, where he sinks amongst the murky water. The scene is intercut with the Gillespie family moving into the new housing estate that James had explored earlier, carrying their furniture and possessions across the wheat field. James looks at the camera as his face breaks into a full smile, before it returns to him floating motionlessly in the canal.