Hide and Seek (2014)

Just what I expected

Admirable film.

Absolutely Fantastic

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

a foursome in some beautiful remote countryside place?haven't i seen this before?well, browsed through all the 10 reviews so far, hoping someone has mentioned what i'm going to say but didn't find it ... except for one making a hint to The Dreamers by Bertolucci ... which is not exactly this really as there are only three people in that, two of whom a brother and a sister ... and like most Bertolucci movies, it's strongly politically inclined ... so, that's not one of the two movies with a similar theme i had in mind ...Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) is one of them though, which has a four-stars cast, all beautiful and handsome and super famous ... and the other's a movie i really wish to watch again but haven't been able to find because i don't remember its name, nor that of any of its actors (and it was either a late 1960s or early 1970s movie btw ...) i do remember that unlike this one that's rather an artsy movie, it was more a commercial product (with a strong moralistic message in the end) although still good and worth seeing ... and if i recall it right, it had a four-stars cast too ...anyhoot, why did i get into all the detail about the other two similar movies here? simply because i wanted to point out that from the VP of story, Amorous (Hide and Seek) is not a 'new' movie really ... but the way it is made (trying to be "artsy" as some have put it already, while also being low cost and indie) then this work is certainly very much different from the other two 'big production' cases just mentioned above ...and i have to say i did like this work but i do also find it a little lacking in some ways ... as well as a little confused ... for example, this could well be a nice little soft porn movie, but it's not ... or it could delve more into the innards of the characters, but it doesn't quite do that either ... so, it's kind of lost between the two worlds maybe ... and maybe that's what the director had in mind too? maybe ... maybe there's also a soft porn cut of this work in the director's personal archives just as well, you know, with its sex scenes in full ... maybe ...

An artsy fartsy attempt at 'film making' and acting. Unfortunately it is mostly 'fartsy imagery and actors at playtime' wrapped around a thread bare story or rather plot as there really isn't a story to be found.So here's the deal - four beautifully young people, two girls and two boys, escape to the English countryside to live together in an 'open relationship' type arrangement. There are sure to be bruised ego's and they are too young to realize this. But they get a fair warning from one of the girls ex-boyfriend who shows up to hopefully convince her to leave with him because he can see the dead end to this life style. She doesn't leave. Plus it's interesting that a pudgy ugly guy was cast as the realist while the idealist dreamers are quite lovely to see.By movies end you will be quite bored with these four shenanigans and touchy feely daily life style. They are pretty to see but the viewer is left with an empty plot and no direction. Then it's over. Pretty much a 'so-what big-deal' flick that will keep you marginally entertained.

Joanna Coate's Hide and Seek is an ode to beauty. Grace is everywhere, whether it be in the cinematography, the story, the characters or the actors. The same way the characters in the film defy society by creating their own little utopia, the film generally defies our expectations regarding modern cinema. Coates has done away with the conventional plot. There is no beginning, no middle, no end to the story. She has done away with the socially-dictated faultless images of the body. Beauty in this movie can be found as much in its perfection as a unique picture, as in its deliberate imperfection.Constructed around the central themes of nature, boundaries of intimacy, social non-conformism and freedom, Hide and Seek will leave you reflective. In our busy lives, few are the times we allow ourselves to escape reality and question things society has taught us to internalize. Could we be capable of undertaking the protagonists' journey? Would we be willing? What do we owe society that we shouldn't just seek to create our own utopias?These are some pretty profound questions, yet there is something to be said about the softness of the film. A plot so uncomplicated, a setting so peaceful and stripped of business, the fact that most of the scenes happen in a small perimeter in and around the same house make for a pure, distilled, easy to watch film. Hide and Seek is a triumph of artistry in that it glistens beauty through simplicity, and perfection through difference.

Seen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014. 'Hide and Seek' has a simple story: Leah, a young woman unsure of what she wants from life, inherits an isolated cottage in the country. She invites three other youngsters - a woman and two men - to move in with her on the understanding a different combination - female/male, female/female and male/male - will share what they call the 'marital bed' each night. In between bouts in the bed they while away the hours lazing in the garden or staging evening 'entertainments' (art class, a pretend camping trip, mock funeral etc).And that's it, really; there's not much sign of a conventional storyline here, although the film does have a beginning, middle and end. Director Joanna Coates keeps the pace constant, if slow; and pulls off the difficult trick of making the sex scenes reasonably explicit but also rather discrete (a vigorous five-finger shuffle aside). (Incidentally, don't get the wrong idea - there aren't so many sex scenes, and they're all pretty brief - this isn't soft porn.) The four young leads - none of whom are drop-dead gorgeous, which adds to the realism of the piece, although none of them looks bad naked - cope well enough with their roles, although for me acting honours go to Hannah Arterton as the girl who breaks a romance of five years to join the group; she utilises a range of facial ticks which on another actor might have seemed too much like Acting - Arterton, however, makes them quite natural.