This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
David is a young 22 year old dancer who has just been accepted to a dance company of his dreams. He wants to go but is hesitant because he has feelings for Jules, who is a married man that David has been having an affair with. It turns out that Jules is actually married to David's sister Jane. Slowly David starts to understand that Jules cannot reciprocate the love that he expects of him and as a rebound hooks up with a guy Sam in a club. They both get along well and as David is starting to get serious with Sam, Jules misses him and wants to do something about it. He becomes irritable and picks fights with Jane all the time. Jane can't understand what's going on. Meanwhile, Sam and David want to get serious and they decide to go for HIV test. Turns out that David is positive and Sam is fine. David is heartbroken and confronts Jules on why he gave him the virus. This is when truth comes out that secretly Jules has slept with some other guys. David forces Jules to come clean to Jane, which of course puts a split between relationship that David has with his sister and family. Sam, initially can't understand how David could do that to his sister, but ultimately decides to give all the support that he can to David for him to continue a happy healthy life.
I am not sure why different characters keep addressing David as "soft lad". It was a bit annoying. Also, despite the fact that David's and Jules' affair started with a few drunken nights, David should have known better. Thankfully Sam is the only one who asks him towards the end on how could he ever do this to his sister. No one can ever get so blinded by love and lust. You can understand that Jules is a douche bag but why would David get mad for Jules not leaving his wife for him. Thats just being selfish. Because this clearly doesn't prove that David loves and cares for his sister. The acting and direction felt more theatrical than a film setup. and things just happened very conveniently. How can a young man like David have slept with only Jules or Sam; how does Sam and Jules fall so much in love with each other so quick and suddenly the husband goes from thinking he is straight to being gay. Overall, the makers were missing the point. Were they trying to educate the people about affects of HIV or is it love or is it something else? It was hard to say. By the way, it may sound weird but the accent was getting to me after a while, especially Jane. I wanted to feel bad for her, because in all this, she is the one who gets hurt the most but I just failed to connect with her character.
The film did little to develop its characters and towards the second half I would skip the film so I could just move along. Good scope from a subject point of view but an average direction fails to lift the movie to anything that you would remember the film for. (4.5/10)
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