tamsyn fallows

I’m really amazed by how many great reviews this film has. It is beautifully made… The cinematography and score really carry the film and are absolutely spot on, and Andrew Scott’s acting is great. BUT the film is so lacking in narrative and character development that it totally failed to draw me in emotionally or hold my attention. I usually love watching intense, intimate connection between people in films, but it just felt like there wasn’t really anything to latch onto here. The entire mood was created by the cinematic effects, rather than any actual story, (and thus chemistry) between the two people who were being intimate together. It felt throughout like the film used cinematic devices to keep building tension, but the tension never led to anything. Nothing was ever revealed. Except at the very end, by which point I had completely lost interest and was just waiting for the film to finish. It was a very visually beautiful attempt at exploring grief, but it just didn’t hit the mark for me. If they had added in greater narrative between the two main characters, and focused a bit less on the repetitive meetings with parents, I would have felt much more connected to Andrew’s and Paul’s characters and the eventual outcome in the story. As people have said, there is a really dream like quality to the picture. However, just like when somebody tells you about a long dream they’ve had, it becomes rather boring to listen to as it’s hard to care about what’s going on because there’s no narrative. Same with this film. It would have worked much better as a short. It’s interesting to see how so many people have enjoyed it though. Thus is the subjective nature of art!