This is a film that, in my opinion, has a neat concept but fumbles the execution. Despite a strong cast and an intriguing central premise, the film doesn’t fully live up to its potential. Also, Ncuti Gatwa is barely in it, which is a bummer.
The film offers up a split narrative. In 1965, Jennifer Stirling has just returned home after a serious car accident with major gaps in her memory. When she discovers hidden letters from a lover she doesn’t remember having, she tries to piece things together. Meanwhile, in the present day, Ellie Haworth is a reporter who happens upon one of the letters while consulting the archives for an unrelated piece. Caught up by the romance of the letter, she sets about trying to uncover the story of these two lovers and find out if they ever got their happy ending.
We’ll take the different sections of the film in turn. In the 1960s scenes, even before we get to the discovery of the letter, it’s clear that not all is well in the Stirling household. You can feel the foreboding in the air, this sense that Jennifer’s cold husband is keeping something from her. It carries notes of a romantic thriller. Shailene Woodley plays Jennifer with a careful mix of reluctance and strength, and Joe Alwyn brings a subtle menace to her husband Lawrence. These scenes also feature Zoe Boyle, who I still remember as Lavinia from Downton Abbey, and Callum Turner turns in a nice performance as well.
Frustratingly, this half of the film quickly discards Jennifer’s attempts to fill in the gaps in her memory and search for clues (the letter is signed with her lover’s pet name, so she can’t look him up through any official channels,) instead spending most of its time on flashbacks of her actual relationship with her lover. These scenes are nice, charming and romantic enough for a story about an affair, but the mystery aspect was the part that most intrigued me, and I’d have liked to get more of Jennifer’s investigation.
The present-day scenes place more emphasis on Ellie digging for the story behind the letters, but the mystery offers less drama/suspense there. Instead, we mostly see her searching through the archives, so intent on this decades-old romance that she has a difficult time seeing the potential romance of her own that’s right in front of her, with the fastidious but dedicated archivist Rory. He’s a steady rule-follower, she’s smart and well-intentioned but also cynical and a bit of a mess in her personal life. From their love-hate first meeting, it’s clearly telegraphed where things are going to go with these two. Again, the cast is good, with Felicity Jones as Ellie and Nabhaan Rizwan (who I really enjoyed recently as Frank on Station Eleven) as Rory, and they have good chemistry. But the film sets up a cool story and then takes it in the least interesting direction, which is frustrating for me.
There’s slightly more to say about Ncuti Gatwa here than in Bob Servant, though not much. He plays Nick, a work friend of Ellie’s who’s used to her flaking on him as she gets wrapped up in her own stuff. He’s in exactly one scene and exists mainly to send her on the path to discovering the letters—she only goes to the archives to begin with because she offers to make it up to Nick by taking a story off his docket.
Accent Watch
Hard to say. Sounds like general-purpose south England, but there are a few Scottish vowels in there.
Recommend?
In General – A very hesitant maybe. There are good bones here and reliable performances from strong actors, but it doesn’t come together as well as it could have.
Ncuti Gatwa – Nah. It’s close to a two-hour movie and he’s in one scene. Not a must.
Warnings
Sexual content, scenes of violence, language, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements (including emotional abuse.)
* * *
While there’s another season of Sex Education on the way, not to mention The Barbie Movie coming out this summer, I’m currently caught up on the Ncuti Gatwa projects I can get my hands on. Again, the non-Sex Education stuff is frustratingly negligible, but the bang-up job Gatwa does as Eric Effiong is still enough to get me excited for his run on Who. He’s enthusiastic and charismatic, he’s hilarious but brings the drama when he needs to, and I love what a physical actor he is, delivering, not just with his line readings, but with his whole body. Bring on his Doctor!
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