Hide and Seek

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.

With little preamble, four young adults go to live in an isolated country cottage and unleash their imaginations and libidos. I am not sure what this film is trying to say, but I understand how it is being said.

This is a stylish film, filled with pastoral scenes of solitude and contemplation. The four are initially guarded and awkward, but as time passes, they organically grow as a foursome, granting each other permission to experiment and unleash they childish impulses for fun. As the days and nights unfold, the lines between reality and fantasy/pretend become blurred. Ultimately, they must learn to trust each other if their experiment is to continue.

This film might have been titled "polyamorous", given the nature of their relationship after weeks of intimate seclusion. It is primarily a series of vignettes, providing glimpses into their evolving four-person relationship. They achieve some measure of freedom from social conventions, but the experiment is open-ended.

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.

Oh dear! What a mess!

There's little storyline to the whole thing. Four twenty somethings drop out and do the fourth way kind of gig on a country farm. Think, let's make a little free love commune, without all the hippy paraphernalia. There's little back story to anyone and not much exposition in general. Quite honestly director and co-writer Joanna Coates doesn't appear to have done the hard yards on this project at all.

Lots of repetition of scenes; lying around the farm yard, pretentious little group concerts and plays (burning cardboard coffins?) and nightly musical beds. Some ex-boyfriend drops in for a bit and then leaves in a huff and it all ends up with an orgy, that drags on for a few minutes, where we don't see much, because it's filmed in such extreme close-up.

Way back in 1969 Paul Mazursky directed a (kind of) similar-themed movie called Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. I never thought it was a particularly good film, though it was a resounding critical and commercial success. It had two big things going for it that Joanna Coates has completely ignored in her making of Hide & Seek. First it had some sort of story happening with its four main characters and second it had a sense of humour and didn't take itself too seriously.

The most interesting thing I can say about Hide and Seek is that Gemma Arterton's (one of my favourites) little sister Hannah, is one of the four "stars", all of whom had very little with which to work. One of them, Daniel Metz can take a certain portion of the blame for that too, as he co-wrote the very thin script with Coates.

Let's take a look at the positive. This is or could be perceived as a master class in acting. The movie itself seems to be free of restrictions (and clothes for that matter) and you should be aware of the nudity. There is no visible penetration by the way, but you do have male self pleasuring (explicit and vivid).

Having stated that (in Germany the movie still got the 16+ rating), that should not play a role for or against the movie. The characters have issues which become even more apparent during a visit from the "outside". Their circle is clear and somewhat stagnant, this outside influence kind of gives the movie a bit of a new edge, but nothing that is sustained. We get back to the old "craziness". Which may be the point of the movie, but does not make it more attractive or viewers more excited to watch it (if you'll excuse the pun)