Aftersun is another short TV
movie, like Micky Love. I think
it makes for a very worthwhile hour – nice little film driven by
thoughtfully-drawn characters and excellent performances.
Jim and
Sue, high school sweethearts going on 20 years of marriage, have just become
empty nesters. For their anniversary,
their children give them a two-week holiday in Spain (way to go – making the
rest of us look bad!), but their relaxing time away quickly devolves into tense
squabbling and hurt feelings. Their
next-door neighbors, a tirelessly passionate young couple, make them feel old
and unloving, and as the days stretch on and the temperature rises, you start
to wonder if their marriage will survive this getaway.
PC
plays Jim. Right from the get-go, he
sours the idea of a vacation, constantly taking work calls and complaining
about the inconvenience of being sent on holiday. He exclusively wears “special” socks and
hasn't had a new swimsuit since his honeymoon, he loves reading about World War
II atrocities, and he has a “foreign voice” that he only uses when he's abroad,
adopting a Yoda-like syntax in the hopes of being understood by
non-English-speakers. He's a little
curmudgeonly, a little pedantic, and more than a little exasperating as a
fellow traveler.
I
really like this performance. Aftersun
is the type of story that lives and dies by its characters, and PC holds up his
end quite capably. Jim is a
well-fleshed-out example of familiar husband/father archetypes, and PC is wholly
believable in the role. As he and Sue
get more and more on each other's nerves, I just want to smack him for being so
obtuse, but he also has a number of really honest moments where it's clear how
much he loves Sue and how badly he wants his marriage to hold together.
Sarah
Parish from Who’s “The Runaway Bride”
also stars in this film. She plays Sue
and looks significantly less like a spider than she did on Who.
Accent
Watch
Scottish.
Recommend?
In
General
– I would; I liked this a lot. The
central characters are so round, and I think this little film is pretty
well-made.
PC-wise – Very much so. PC is excellent here, and he's one of the
leads.
Warnings
A bit
of swearing, light drug use, and some sexual discussion. There's also a scene of naked swimming (you
don't see anything) and a few banana-hammock appearances.
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