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...
The story is simple and straight forward. Philip is a struggling actor in Los Angeles who is called back to his home in a remote Southern town of Alabama when his mother reaches Stage 4 of lung cancer. The rest of the film is all about him reconnecting with his family including father and sister and his two friends in town; while taking care of his mother. Enter Joe, a neighbor who is in town fixing his parents home and went to same school as Philip and who suddenly starts flirting with Philip. The film also shows their growing relationship with each other, while they both know it is probably gonna be short lived. As expected the mother dies in the end but he cherishes the reconnections he has made.
The film has a lot of issues. Firstly the narration by Philip is so bland and uninteresting. We see scene after scene of random things but are those scenes and conversations supposed to contribute to anything to the story, I am not sure? No character besides Philip (who is by the way, in every single scene) is built properly. Whats the sisters deal? Why does he have a strained relationship with his father? Is he bisexual? Just one night before, he was sleeping with a girl and now he is with Joe! Also how much times actually passing by between these events? Has it been just few months o more than couple of years (since at one point someone mentions that the mother has been improving for over a year or something). Hows the family making money, if the son doesn't have a job? I have so many of these questions but I guess the director/actor was too busy just focussing on himself. He also looks a bit old for the part. Maybe, if the film had focused more on developing the relationship between Philip and Joe while the family is dealing with a tragedy; we may still have had something to look forward to.
I found the film really uninteresting. You are not invested in any actor and I really couldn't care less about anyone. If it was trying to make point, that did not cut through me. (3/10)
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