Adolescence was never a lark, but smartphones and WhatsApp groups seem to have turned it into a hellscape of toxic masculinity. That is one of the takeaways from Consent , a grimly plausible account of a sexual assault and the ensuing cover-up at a posh English school.
Some of the dynamics – privileged oiks running amok in a hellish Hogwarts, essentially – feel specifically British. They don’t strike you as mapping easily on to an Irish setting. But there’s something dispiritingly universal about Consent’s portrayal of a rich kid raping a classmate from a disadvantaged background, then relying on family contacts to make the problem go away.
But does it go away? In a twist, it’s revealed that a friend of Archie has kept the video of his sexual assault on Natalie , a scholarship student. He forwards it to her, and she calls the police.It’s hardly a happy ending – in the UK fewer than 1 per cent of reported rapes result in prosecution. It suggests, however, that Archie might in the end experience negative consequences for his actions.