As a directorial debut from Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley, this decidedly British tragicomedy is eerily odd, yet wonderfully amusing. Meshing the tragedy of the mundane and the farce of absurdist comedy, Black Pond offers a cynically telling story of a middle-aged couple’s descent into a life devoid of love. When a stranger dies at their dinner table, the family is totally broken following the ensuing police inquest and media frenzy.

Christopher Langham delivers a suitably low key and occasionally intense performance as Tom. Together with his wife, Sophie Thompson (Amanda Hadingue), they have lost their lust for life and their love for each other, representing an unsettling and possible reality. Their interaction is appropriately troubling. The documentary style segments of the film use a strange straight-faced humour, but essentially underpin the overall realism, which is crucial to the depiction of the Thompson’s inadequate family relationship. It makes the tragedy and the comedy simultaneously more poignant.

These two elements are expertly fused. When Langham meets an offbeat stranger, Blake (Colin Hurley), the possibility of happiness is introduced, but it is implicitly shown he has led his own life of inevitable decline. Blake’s awkward unintentional humour and demeanour is almost reminiscent of Zach Galifianakis - he even has the beard.

The one openly funny character is Eric (Simon Amstell), the pseudo-psychotherapist. His delivery and wit is razor sharp and it is hard not to laugh at his cutting remarks. He laughs in the face of the futility of human existence; the closest the film gets to laugh out loud comedy. In contrast to Amstell, understated comedy washed with the dead intensity of the characters’ situations typifies the film. The dead and prolonged silence at the family dog’s funeral highlights the odd, depressing yet laughable blandness of their lives.

Black Pond illustrates a portrayal of a dysfunctional family being slowly torn apart by the inevitable decline of life. It is a mesmerising, thought-provoking blend of beautiful images and comedy. It immerses the audience to the extent that by the end, it is like emerging from a wonderful dream.

Black Pond will be showing at the Cameo from November 25th – December 1st.