by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
The Toll (a.k.a Tollbooth) tells the story of an unnamed toll booth operator (Michael Smiley) who has lived the last 29 years working the relatively quiet booth, until one day, a man from his past named Elton (Gary Beadle) passes through, bringing up an unexplained dark past. This chance passing sets a violent plot of revenge in motion that takes clear inspiration from the films of Tarantino and the Coen brothers, as we discover Smiley has far more involvement in what comes through his booth than people ever realized.
Set in a village in Wales, this dark comedy opens towards the end of the story as Smiley’s character recounts the events to police officer Catrin (Annes Elwy). This framing of the events told to Catrin works well because she is the character the audience can relate to, being the only straight character in a relatively small cast. The story will often cut back to Catrin as she is told the story, and she will ask the obvious questions the audience is likely to ask. At one point, Catrin even comments on being unsure what order the story is told in, a clear nod to the nonlinear style of Tarantino.
Much of the story’s mystery centers around not being given the complete picture of certain events or characters; for example, the opening shows Catrin finding how things are resolved. But we don’t know what she’s seen until the story reaches that point. Characters are introduced without us immediately being told about them, or their history with the characters they interact with, giving the impression that this is just a window into the ongoing lives of these people; this reminded me of the Coen brothers, as did the small but well-fleshed-out cast.
Having a relatively small cast and a runtime of barely 80 minutes, I was impressed by how many twists and turns the story takes. It even features a few subplots and decent development for most of the oddball side characters. These include three sisters (all Gwyneth Keyworth), who rob people intending to get them followers on Instagram, and an Elvis impersonator named Dixie (Evelyn Mok) with a partner (Darren Evans) whose speech is incomprehensible to us yet, she understands, giving a bit of a Rocket/Groot vibe to their relationship.
The small cast works well in the village setting, where it seems like everyone knows each other. There are a few points where characters imply a backstory without giving the full details, as the people they are talking to know it already. There is a clever scene where Catrin tries to find out more about Smiley’s past from locals in a pub, and they give her the plots of films. I can undoubtedly see viewers wanting to visit the villages of Wales after seeing this because the hills and coastline of Pembrokeshire are shot beautifully with greens and blues that pop and act as a perfectly mismatching backdrop to the darker-toned storyline. The sparsely populated quaint village also looks wonderfully quirky. I almost wanted to head there myself and talk to the locals.
The remaining cast includes authentic Welshman Iwan Rheon and Paul Kaye, as Smiley’s right-hand men in disposing of evidence and bodies, Dom and Cliff, respectively. These two work well off each other and Smiley when discussing dealing with difficult situations as the story becomes more chaotic. They have subplots later on, which provides a feel of a TV drama with multiple storylines being told simultaneously and characters crossing over. Maybe this is a reference to both actors having been on Game of Thrones.
This brings me to my main negative, which is some of the subplots. They make certain characters feel a bit tacked on, coming across as an attempt to give them more relevance to the story. Catrin has a subplot that doubles as her arc over the story involving her deceased father, and the way it ends is satisfying, but being one of several subplots made it feel a lot more like filler. Another big negative for me was the style of humor they used. It was a British film set in Wales, so it seemed logical to assume it would have a British humor style with absurd and sarcastic reactions to things or just the joke banter of a normal conversation. Instead, it primarily winks and nods to something or just one-liners. It got a few titters of laughter out of me, but it also felt very American and out of place in a British film. A minor negative I also have is Evelyn Mok’s performance felt a bit wooden in some areas.
But the acting is pretty solid for the most part, which surprised me since, outside of Rheon and Kaye, I wasn’t familiar with any of the cast. Smiley, in particular, is a standout for the way his character is shown as more of a threat with things progressing, but his performance remains consistent.
I wasn’t sure what to think about the climax for a while. As a story homage to westerns and the Coen brothers films, the conclusion certainly fits that idea, but it also felt very forced. It almost felt like the writers wrote the ending first and then just worked their way back from there without considering if the conclusion matched with what came before it. With what happened and Smiley’s speech afterwards, it felt like they were screaming at me, “we’re doing the western thing here! Do you see?”
The Toll has enough compelling characters and humorous moments in it that it’s easily worth taking an hour and a half out of your day to watch if you enjoy westerns. The story is sometimes challenging to stay engaged with as nothing feels impactful outside of Catrin’s arc. It certainly feels more like experiencing a slice of life in a small Welsh village, but with a darker undertone to it.
Grade: B
You can follow John Tillyard on Instagram