At 70 minutes, Somers Town is something of a short story. The title comes from the area of London where the story is set. Somers Town is located between three railway terminals, including St. Pancras, from which trains head off to the Continent via the Chunnel. Those terminals can be seen as either the promise of something new or a dead end.

The story focuses on two teenagers, Tomo, a runaway from Nottingham, and Marek, a Polish immigrant who lives with his father. After being beaten and robbed by a band of young thugs, Tomo strikes up a friendship with Marek. Soon, Marek is letting Tomo stay in his flat without Marek's father's permission. The two boys are both somewhat on their own—Tomo because he has left his family and Marek because he is left alone most of the time while his father is working or drinking with friends. The two boys are both taken with the same girl, but soon she returns to France, leaving them with nothing but dreams.

That is just about the whole story. In fact, the film isn't so much about plot as it is a bit of a character study, not just of the two boys, but of the neighborhood they find themselves in. Director Shane Meadows originally wanted to make a short film about the changes happening in the area as St. Pancras Station was being renovated. Paul Fraser came up with a script that looked at it through the eyes of the two boys and it grew from there.

There is a certain sense in which this is a coming-of-age film, but we don't necessarily see the boys develop very much. It is also a slice-of-life film in that we just drop into their stories with no background on how either of them came to be where they are. The boys have that sense of aimlessness that is so common at their age. They aren't yet sure who they are or where they want to go. They long for life to offer them more than they have found so far.

Because of their age, the boys' dreams haven't really developed yet, so we don't know just what kinds of aspirations they may have. The film ends with what may be their dream (or the realization of their dream). That is a fairly simple dream, but appropriate for what we have seen of them.

The story is a bit thin and underdeveloped, but it still manages to give us just enough information to care about the characters and their dreams. Neither of them is really at home in Somers Town. It's yet to be seen if this will be their dead end or their jumping off point for a brighter future.