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...
We meet Victor and Alina, who have decided they are better off as friends. To cheer her mood during Christmas celebrations, Victor hires a singing telegram to boost her spirits. We meet Roy, doing. This odd job. The trio hang for a while and When Roy leaves, he is attacked by a homeless guy. Victor notices him on the ground when he comes out to drop off Alina and brings him home. He later finds out that Roy is a British national, who came to Panama behind her girlfriend who dumped him and as of that night , he was both jobless and homeless. After some thinking Victor proposes a gay civil union between the two to keep him in the country legally. After an initial utter shock, Roy agrees and they get married. They even have sex on their wedding night but Roy is very clear this is not gay. The come to an agreement they will always be there for one another as a couple minus sex. Life starts to get better for the till Roy starts falling for Alina slowly and they soon become a couple. Roy confides in Victor that Alina has accepted his marriage proposal and he is sorry to break Victor's heart. The duo get married but next we find out that Roy has some medical problems and he cannot conceive a child. They ask Victor to be a surrogate but instead of donating sperm, they ask him for a threesome to conceive the baby naturally. Tragedy strikes at delivery time, when sadly Victor is left all alone with the baby.
The first initial bits of the film show us around Panama, which reminded me of my trip back there few years ago. Even though the story is very interesting and unique-ish, the concept had some merit; but sadly the execution is completely flat of the film. At any point you don't really connect with any character at all and you can feel they are acting. The film needs better screenplay, better dialogues and overall a better direction. There are way too many moments of nothingness and silence which are really not needed in a movie like this. Also, I don't know what was up with the voices, but the sound of the film was really bad and you had to focus really hard to hear what's going on. Some people can even think that the film's story does go all over the place. We never know was Victor always gay? Will Roy feel so indebted to anyone that he will be ok having sex with another man? The whole threesome and surrogacy angle seemed to be put in just to make it more complex, which for some people could feel absolute weirdness and you may just laugh off at the absurdity of it.
The film has a bot of honesty, or at least it feels like that was the intention, but dealing with things just at the surface level, without really investing in your characters makes this film a very forgettable and very slow and boring experience. (4/10)
Comments
This is so true. To be honest I barely remember much. My ratings are more for potential to be better :)