Daphne

Daphne (Emily Beecham) is a woman living in London. She's a struggling sous chef. She has many one night stands. She has drifted from her friends. She's estranged from her mother who is revealed to have cancer. She does drugs but mostly she's a drunk. One night, she's in a corner store when a robber comes in and stabs the cashier.

This is a fine character study. However, I do want more from this movie. It needs a second main character. Probably, it needs the mother to have more screen time. It needs to be a character relationship study as well as a character study. Other relationships could have been the main subject matter. This movie drifts. I don't mind drifting through her life but it could have been more.

I have a friend who I always thought as a liberal version of myself who live as what other people think about him doesn't matter which is the only major difference I see between him and myself. While watching Daphne I was thinking here is a female version of him. So extending that in a way Daphne was a very relatable experience to me. Emily Beecham is incredible as the confused and miserable Daphne who quotes Zizak and Freud but doesn't know if that really means anything to her. Exposing her as almost a bitch character and slowly showing her life where she doesn't find any meaning and to an extent just want to run away from everything and doesn't want to find anything. The only problem I have with the film is that it ended too soon, they should have explored a bit more of her life and thoughts or maybe it was perfect and I just want life to be bigger than it is while it isn't and never really taking an initiative to make it just like Daphne.

A woman in her 30s who's rude, obnoxious, drugs and alcohol consuming, promiscuous, bigoted and also hates her mother.

Who does this remind you of? If you thought Fleabag, you're right. But, in this context, we're talking about Daphne. This low-budget comedy prances around with its tropes that Fleabag is known for. However, unlike Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emily Beecham does not have that wide-eyed wicked stare that Fleabag is famous for. She's rather tamed. But, her attitude nonetheless yells "I'm a b****."

I usually like to watch films such as Daphne, ones that don't have a concrete plot and simply follows its character(s) wander about. Daphne however was painfully clear that it wasn't an original idea or even a better interpretation of the self-destructive woman.

I did enjoy Daphne's reaction to a crime that happens in a small grocery store. But, this was early in the film and I still had high hopes. It all comes down crashing.

I think the whole "self-destructive woman" concept can be tapped into to create more morally and ethically ambiguous films. It's just that Daphne didn't do it for me despite a decent performance from Emily Beecham

Somehow between the writer's idea through to the film script...the mis-casting and the not quite there direction, this story loses its point. At heart, this ought to be a tale about a well brought up girl who's gone off the rails and catapulted herself into a mental health hell hole. What we actually get to see is a stilted unrepresentative facsimile of a sixth form drama class attempt at film making. It is neither compelling nor so offensive that you walk out. It's all a bit blah and dull. The principle character has zero self awareness but we have no one elses point of view as a counter point. Only one actor gets his part right...walk on security guy David. He's a love. More of his story would have been nice but we are denied that. In summary there is nothing here to see.

"'Daphne' is the vibrant character portrait of a young woman on the threshold of a much-needed change." A film premise can hardly be more vague, yet that one sentence is a fair reflection of the plot. This is a movie that's greatly understated, with only scarce moments of vividness punctuating the runtime.

Emily Beecham draws every last vestige of nuance that she can out of her starring role as the title character. Daphne is morose, and somewhat despondent, in her directionless candor. She eventually shows just enough real honestly to reveal at least part of the reason behind her jaded agitation. But what's funny is that she doesn't seem drastically different from other characters in her demeanor, even as the film works tirelessly to set her apart.

This is curious. There are very few shots that don't center on Daphne, and even as she's consistently going nowhere in her life, it's a good guess that at least least half the movie is her walking or taking transportation to one place or another, or no place at all. It feels like 'Daphne' has a message it wants to say, something profound, but it stops short of meaningfully doing so. Like the character it focuses on, the film mostly just seems to abide, without any particular rhyme or reason. Maybe I'm just not properly attuned to pick up on its subtleties, but I watch this with an open mind, and no expectations, and just feel flummoxed.

I think the most I can say is that I do recognize myself as a viewer in Daphne. Having myself struggled with depression for years, I gather the same questioning in Daphne's distant self-isolation of what she's doing with her life, or what it's all for. Beyond that smudged mirror, I admit I'm having a hard time finding especial value here. I feel bad even saying that, but I'm kind of at a loss.

It's well made in a technical sense. It's not outright bad. But I simply don't know what it is that this movie wants to be, any more than its protagonist knows what she wants to be. 'Daphne' is a film to watch for those viewers with extraordinary patience, who appreciate the most unglamorous and uneventful of character studies. For any more general audience - well, good luck, and maybe you'll discern something here that I missed.