04/06/11….’Suble, murky, mysterious’ at Thame cinema
TOMORROW at Thame Cinema 4 All, Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame, Archipelago; Saturday June 4th 2011 at 8pm (doors 7.30) Run time 114 minutes. Cert 15
?The second film by British director Joanna Hogg is subtle, mysterious, murky and utterly distinctive?. Peter Bradshaw
Directed by Joanna Hogg starring Amy Lloyd, Christopher Bake, Christopher Baker, Kate Fahy, Lydia Leonard, Tom Hiddleston
?quietly outstanding?
Edward is 29, with a lucrative job in the city but a nagging sense that his life is unfulfilled. He is on the point of heading off to Africa for a year to get involved with AIDS education. By way of a send-off, Edward?s mother Patricia and sister Cynthia organise a special family holiday, just like old times, in a much-loved cottage on Tresco, one of the Scilly Islands.
But what might sound like a warm, familiar, affectionate gesture is tainted with familial resentment, sibling rivalry, loss and frustration, ulterior motives. Edward is supercilious and vain but uncertain and confused; Cynthia is uptight, perpetually aggrieved. Edward?s father, estranged from Patricia, has been invited but never shows up. Edward?s girlfriend is ?not family? so is not included, but that doesn?t prevent Patricia from including a local artist who is invited to teach her how to paint, and a cook / housekeeper ? Rose ? even though there are officially only 3 for dinner.
What ensues is a subtle, deliciously uncomfortable but razor sharp portrayal of the ties that bind, tinged with the inevitable embarrassment of middle class-ness (should Rose have dinner with them, or eat in the kitchen?), peppered with painfully funny moments.
The film considers the tension inherent in relationships born of blood and shared experience that nonetheless resist real intimacy and understanding. Hogg?s static camerawork ? with long shots of tableaux of people ? allows careful scrutiny of the players, and the absence of a soundtrack and the naturalism of the dialogue lend it honesty, avoiding melodrama or artificial sentiment. The chilly off-season landscape, beautifully bleak, its light cold and muted, adds to the sense that these people are stranded with each other, having gone on holiday by mistake. Reminiscent of Ayckbourn, Chekov, Rohmer and Ozu, this is a lovely, serious, humane and enigmatic film.
