Unrelated

Unrelated (2007) is a movie from the UK written and directed by Joanna Hogg.

Kathryn Worth portrays Anna, a woman in her 40's. She travels to a Italy to stay with an old friend and her friend's family. There are two groups at the villa--the Olds and the Youngs.

Anna hangs out with the Youngs, where she clearly doesn't belong. They're not a particularly wholesome group--spoiled, careless, and seeking pleasure and danger in equal measures.

Unfortunately, the Olds could be described in the same way. There's not a single one among them that's not spoiled and careless. (They don't do dangerous stunts, but they probably did them when they were younger.)

Of course, Tuscany is beautiful, and the movie is interesting in its own way, but, unless you're a Johanna Hogg fan, I don't recommend it.

Unrelated has an IMDb rating of 6.7. I agreed, and rated it 7.

Anna (Kathryn Worth) is having marital problems and spending the summer holiday family friends Verena (Mary Roscoe), Charlie (Michael Hadley) and George (David Rintoul) at their Tuscan villa. She starts to spend more time with the younger teenage children Archie (Harry Kershaw), Badge (Emma Hiddleston), Jack (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) and Oakley (Tom Hiddleston). They smoke some weed and crash a car. The sexual tension boils over as she flirts with the leader of the kids Oakley.

It's a British mumbletalk indie. I wish the relationships between the characters are laid out more clearly early on. It would help decipher and build a backstory to their connections if they have any. They need to throw in a few lines like "I haven't seen you since you were this tall." It would help to build tension in the first half of the movie. The older people also need to have some in-depth talk in the first half. It would fill out their characters. Anna has very curt conversations with Verena. This feels like a bunch of strangers and it's not until the second half that things get a little bit interesting.

I found this film on the MUBI platform and after a bit of apprehension, I decided to give it a go. It had all the existential angst and cathartic denouements that one would associate with an art-house feature that is out these days. Still, this film manages to provide a mildly amusing look at a group of English holidaymakers in a pastoral Tuscan retreat. Tuscany is as much of a character in the film as Kathryn Worth's Anna. I quite liked Joanna Hogg's use of camera, often introverted yet probing with its longing close-ups of Anna and Oakley. She removes the camera away from the action and towards the characters, subtly highlighting their emotional frailties and thriving insecurities. Shots are consumed, cigarettes are burnt and there is a whole lot of fun and games yet the recessive malaise is hardly disguised. Stylistically, there are hints of David Gordon Green in a few of the scenes not to mention the looming figures of Bergman and Antonioni. My only problem with the film despite its languid appeal is its derivative nature. This is an issue that she largely solved in her much better second feature, Archipelago. A promising debut nevertheless.

The antithesis of all Shirley Valentine stands for.

You've been quarreling with your husband, and things aren't looking too rosy in your future. So, you jump at the chance of going on holiday with your best friend to Italy, with her extended family. While there, you feel a bit of a midlife crisis coming on... and start hanging around with your mate's son and his clique rather than your fellow 'oldies'. Because you got drunk with them a few times, and he saw you naked emerging from a swimming pool, you think there might be sparks between you and this guy... who's about 25 years your junior. But when you offer to spend the night with him, you discover all these dreams are pure fantasy. Depression quickly sets in, and in a fit or rage you announce a secret to your friend that you promised to keep hidden about a crashed car. Whoops.

The heroine (played by Kathryn Worth) is quite a pathetic case, and I felt myself inwardly cringe as she gallivanted around with youngsters with whom she had nothing in common, in a vain attempt to appear 'cool'. NEWSFLASH: you're not 18 anymore. And following around teenagers, putting on a demeanor so fake even a blind man could see it is the height of desperation. I'm not saying it's time to whip out the ol' pipe and slippers, but maybe communicating with your own age group is a better idea than embarrassing yourself in front of a completely different generation who probably wonder "What the hell's going on"? Don't get me started on her failed seduction of her so-called BFF's kid either. CREEPY.

Anyway, it's a good story (if a little long-winded) and when the s**t hits the fan, it turns into something evilly compelling, like a multi-storey car crash. The happy conclusion felt a bit forced, everything was solved a little too easily for my liking. But it's still an honest, admirable little indie feature, and a cautionary tale for all those middle-aged ladies who try to relive their misbegotten youth... 6/10

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.