The Souvenir

Another film from Joanna Hogg brings another portrait of emotionally repressed, deeply unhappy members of the upper middle classes. To make things worse, the film relies on the over-familliar trope of the struggles of a would-be artist (the most boring of all subjects for an artist to consider), in this case a young woman contemporary to the director and with an apparent aspiration to become a Hogg-like film-maker. In places the film seems to acknowlege the inherent ridiculousness of its protagonist; but she recieves a sympathetic treatment. Hogg's style is frankly bizarre: the opposite of melodramatic, she prefers to show her characters going quielty about their business in the aftermath of unseen trauma. Even the wider structure of the film seems (deliberatley) artless, things happen (mostly offscreen) but there's no attempt to construct a plot in the orthodox sense, to manipulate the sequence of events to create a well-paced story. In general, I hate Hollywood blockbusters with their predictable narrative arcs, and love a good piece of miserablism; but the director has to meet me half-way. In fact, although I was profoundly irritated for the film's first half, I found the remainder more watchable than Hogg's two previous movies. But the basic subject (naive woman whose boyfriend is a heroin addict) was covered with far more wit and perception by Rachel Cusk in her first novel 'Saving Agnes', without the same level of underlying self-regard.

Quite early on I could tell what was going on in the film. I even had a guess at what the end would be. Despite this, I continued watching expecting more, something big, something shocking and I never really got it. The director does a great job at showing the ins and outs of a toxic relationship, however, it's just not enough.

This film tells the story of a film student who has an unreliable boyfriend.

Just five minutes in, I already found the film very boring. There is little story. Even if there was a story, it was told in a really boring way. There were shots that meant nothing, such as the guy going into the kitchen scrubbing, or Tilda Swinton going into the kitchen seemingly to work on the oven. These scenes told nothing, and weren't followed up. Scenes were mostly static, and the contents were very mundane. I found it horrendous.

As much as I enjoy the better-quality summer blockbusters, I also really appreciate good independent films in the summer as a welcome and refreshing alternative to all the franchise movies and explosions. With that in mind as well as this film's terrific reviews, I was hoping that "The Souvenir" would be an excellent film. Sadly, I was let down. While the film certainly isn't bad, it has enough flaws to make it seem a bit empty at times.

The film tells the story of a young film student (Honor Swinton Burke) who begins to fall in love. (I won't say anything else to avoid giving something away.) The film is impressive on a technical level, with strong cinematography and superb production design. Sounds are mixed well throughout the film's duration, and the film's understated editing is very well done. Unfortunately, the character development of the male lead is almost nonexistent, which really damages the movie as a whole. It's a very "cold" movie emotionally, which can work in some films where the characters' emotions are not on the front burner. But for a romantic drama that expects the viewer to care about its two leads, this stoic tone is both jarring and understatedly erratic. While Swinton Burke is fine in the lead role, and some of the short scenes discussing her interest in filmmaking are interesting enough, her performance is rather flat. Tilda Swinton is terrific (as always,) but she is very sadly wasted and given very minimal screen time. While the film's cinematography is often very good, it can also be repetitive. For example, just how many shots of the front of opening and closing elevator doors are in this movie? If you have to start thinking about that while watching the movie after the first several, then there are too many. I also believe the film would have been better if it had a score. I was really hoping to love this movie given how great the trailer and reviews from critics were, but I was left a bit disappointed. 6.5/10

'The Souvenir (2019)' plays out like a series of memories, a highlight reel of a distinct period in its protagonist's life. This is perhaps fitting considering that it's based on director Hogg's own past, playing out almost as a kind of catharsis for the emotional turmoil she underwent while in film school. It's nontraditional but considered. There's very little exposition, aside from when there's an overt amount of it, and we're often dropped into the middle a scene without any real context, left to piece together the plot through snippets of dialogue. It almost feels as though the thing is taking place to someone we know but aren't close to; we only understand what we see and we only see what we understand. The movie is relatively distant in this regard - although, the viewing experience is always active. It struggles to provoke a deep connection because we aren't really allowed to get close to anyone. Still, the affair is usually engaging. It isn't a masterpiece but it's always well-crafted and often enjoyable. It's a rather complex look at a complex relationship, subtly painting its characters in eventually fairly vivid colours. However, it does start to wear thin after a while, with a slow pacing that sees it drag towards its end. There also isn't a huge sense of escalation, even if the flick ends exactly when it should. It's a definitive narrative so the fact that it's apparently getting a sequel is rather strange. I'd still watch it, though. 6/10