Hot Milk

A young woman and her wheelchair bound mother travel to Spain to seek treatment for the mother's possibly psychosomatic condition. Whilst there the daughter meets and starts a lesbian relationship with another young woman. Writer/director Rebecca Lenkiewicz's 2024 feature film adaptation of Deborah Levy's novel is, one assumes, a partly symbolic relationship drama about families and memories and the marks they leave, both physical and otherwise. An Anglo/Greek co-production with Greece standing in for Spain, it's a fairly restrained drama about coping with pain and loss, and forms of entrapment, with it's share of physical manifestations - wheelchairs, jellyfish marks. Although not too bad it could be a hard sell to a mass audience.

With a strange illness, Rose (Fiona Shaw) and her daughter embark on a journey to the Spanish coast to find a cure, and along the way the daughter Sofia (Emma Mackey) discover another reality far from her controlling mother.

I watched this simply because I have a thing for Emma Mackey, who looks very like Margot Robbie, but prettier.

But even that draw could not encourage me to watch to the end of the film. It is so excruciatingly boring and pointless.

There's lots of nipples for no apparent reason, there's constant smoking cigarettes which is vile and off putting, there's a dog barking literally throughout the entire film, and there's a rude Ingrid (Vicky Krieps) who speaks so indistinctly and quietly that I had to turn subtitles on.

After 1 hour nothing had happened. People small talked about nothing, Rose's doctor made the most bizarre statements and asked ridiculous questions, Sofia smoked and showed nipples, Ingrid didn't really do anything, and I'm unsure why the doctor's daughter Julieta (Patsy Ferran) even had a part.

All in all it was lovely seeing Emma Mackey, she's always a pleasure to watch, but the film is absolutely coma inducing and doesn't have a point at all. I rated it a 2 and that's only because Emma Mackey was in it otherwise it would have been a 1.

This does come to quite an head in the last five minutes and there's a solid performance from Fiona Shaw at times too, but otherwise I struggled to see much point in this rather shallow drama. "Rose" (Shaw) hasn't been able to walk for almost twenty years so has mortgaged her house so she can attend a specialist clinic run by "Gomez" (Vincent Perez). She is accompanied by her daughter "Sophia" (Emma Mackey) who, whilst she obviously loves her mother, is clearly a bit fed up being her constant carer. I think that fairly swiftly we can deduce something of the nature of the older woman's problems, but that isn't really the crux of this story. That has more to do with "Sophia" and her relationship with "Ingrid" (Vicky Krieps) whose enigmatic personality and character entrance and infuriate her, even more so when her friend "Matty" (Yang Gael) shows up to muddy the already pretty confused waters. With this uninteresting scenario bubbling along lethargically and Shaw just complaining about the water the whole time, we are now largely left to furnish the story with our own interpretation of what we think is most likely going on and then, certainly in my case, ask just why I ought to care one way or the other. The raffia-mafia have had a hand in the characterisation of "Ingrid" and I'm afraid that even though it's filmed on a lovely Greek beach I just couldn't get into it. It's had some decent effort put into the production, but it will look fine on a winter's evening on the television. Not so much hot, more tepid.

After the credits roll, Hot Milk leaves you with the strange taste of over-boiled milk-bitter and lacking something essential.

*** The protagonist's journey is shaped by her interactions with those around her, particularly in her tumultuous relationship with her mother and her complicated love life.

Yet, despite these emotional dynamics, the film feels disjointed, as if the narrative lacks a clear purpose.

The script, unfortunately, falls short. Information is doled out sparingly, making the plot feel underdeveloped. Potentially intriguing parallel stories are introduced but never fully explored. The ending, too, seems forced, attempting to provoke an emotional response but ultimately feeling hollow.

*** On the bright side, the film benefits from a strong performance from Irish actress Fiona Shaw, whose portrayal brings depth to her character. Additionally, the photography shines, with stunning shots of the Mediterranean sun and sea.

This film hit a nerve.

It's not about explosive drama, it's about the quiet, suffocating violence of emotional entanglement: love laced with dependency, boundaries blurred. The daughter is stuck in a role she never chose, blamed for not doing enough, while slowly disappearing in the process.

The constant reaching for water feels symbolic, an effort to swallow discomfort, avoid truth, dilute tension. Conversations dissolve, emotions go undigested.

Visually stunning in its discomfort: blinding brightness clashes with sudden darkness. You're never quite at ease, and that's the point.

And then, unexpectedly, some moments are... funny? Not laugh-out-loud, but absurd in a way that's either painfully relatable or too surreal to take seriously. You're not always sure if the humor is intentional - which somehow makes it even better. Like dissociation in cinematic form.

Maybe too niche or emotionally raw for some. But if you know this kind of silence, the kind that weighs more than words, this film will find you.