Unrelated (2014)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

'Unrelated' has an intriguing premise: a forty-something woman, on the run from an unhappy relationship, takes refuge in a Tuscan villa with an old (but not, it seems, particularly close) friend; and in fact, prefers to spend her time with the younger generation, perhaps trying to re-imagine the youth that got away. There's lots of potential here, and some acute observation, but also some flatness: director Joanna Hogg skilfully captures the mood of a particularly awful house-party, but it's not the sort of place that feels particularly enticing, and the combination of Anna's stupidity and the spoiled obnoxiousness of the beautiful youths who entrance her make for an unappealing and painful combination. If the story falls short of neat conclusions, it also falls short of what normally defines a good story - and the excessive use of static camera shots, leaving the viewer like a guest who'd rather be somewhere else, isn't especially subtle. Overall, this might have been better at half the length: there are some worthwhile ideas, but scene after scene of Anna sitting, painfully on the edge of a social gathering, feels unnecessary.

This was a really interesting first film from writer and director Joanna Hogg. Anna, played superbly here by Kathryn Worth in her first film role, arrives to join her old school friend Verena (Mary Roscoe) who is on holiday in a villa in Tuscany with her family and another family in what is clearly an annual arrangement. Anna was supposed to bring her partner Alex with her, but cited his pressure of work as the reason for her arriving alone. In fact, it quickly becomes apparent that Alex and Anna's relationship is in a rocky place, and Anna is in Italy to enjoy a bit of space.The holiday party divided into the old and the young. Anna, whose place should have been with her school friend and 'the olds', gravitated to the more whizzy youngsters with their loud drinking games, skinny dipping, dope smoking and general hell-raising in a battered Fiat, trustingly lent by neighbouring friends. Verena's son Oakley (Tom Hiddleston) began to show an interest in Anna, but he eventually rejected her signals, leaving her struggling to bond with any group.This was a wonderful film about a woman in her mid-life. It was also a telling study of an outsider being pitched into a different world. Verena and her family were well-to-do middle class, but were not an endearing bunch. The older people were insensitive and unfriendly to Anna, who was in need of someone to talk to; the youngsters, let loose from public school, were brash and spoilt. Anyone who has been ignored in a social situation - and there was a wonderful lunch scene here, featuring Mussolini's sofa - will recognise exactly where Joanne Hogg is coming from, and it makes rather uncomfortable viewing for its target audience. It takes Anna's flight to a grim local hotel to finally galvanise Verena into having the conversation she should have had much earlier, in a highly charged scene.But it was the way that this was filmed which made this something out of the ordinary. There were lovely set pieces in the Tuscan countryside, and in Sienna, but the weather was not always sunny, and often there was a wind blowing. Hogg was bold in her approach: at several points, the camera held steady on Anna, even when conversation and action was going on out of shot, and there were long slow scenes. A car crash did not show what happened, but only the vehicle being pulled out of a field by a tow truck, with the (unharmed but shaken) occupants standing about, as one does. A key scene was an almighty row between Oakley and his father George (David Rintoul) which took place inside the villa: we had to join the families sitting about outside, and like them, we were forced to listen to the dangerous raging coming from inside. And we all had to wait to see who came out of the house first, and in what state.The slow pace and art-house style of film will probably annoy and delight audiences in equal measure. I loved it and am very keen to see what Joanna Hogg does next.

If you wanted a villa holiday in Tuscany this summer and didn't have time, go to this film and by the end you will feel you have spent a fortnight there. Joanna Hogg has created an upper-middle class version of a Mike Leigh film at his slowest. It's beautifully done, and the fortnight is mostly enjoyable, unless you squirm at the sight of drunken Brits abroad or the sound of the upper-middle classes (I developed a thick skin for both of these a long time ago, myself). The characterisation is subtle, verging on invisible. There's very little intellectual content or sparkling conversation, surely unrealistic in a film about the chattering classes? Perhaps it's the prodigious amount of alcohol that's consumed. All this keeps the focus on Anna, on holiday from her unhappy situation at home, and the cheerfully pie-eyed teenagers that she hangs out with.The movie was very thin on plot, yet there did seem to be inconsistencies on the departure date for some of the party. I doubt I'll watch it again to check this though; once is nice, but enough.

Saw this last night at the Glasgow Film Festival with the director and producer present. Joanna Hogg is really an exciting new talent in British cinema. Her influences would appear to be Bergman, Antonioni, Ozu and other classic art-house masters rather than the wan rom-coms and thrillers that tend to clutter up British cinema. The story of a middle-aged woman who joins her friends on holiday in Italy is intriguingly enigmatic but retains an air of mystery and unease as we are allowed to eavesdrop on conversations, hint at relationships and speculate on what seems to be a deeply unhappy existence. The whole film was scripted but the dialogue retains the feel of spontaneity and moments snatched from real life. A challenging film but well worth checking out. Hope it finds a British distributor.