Momento de Afeto

A beautiful ordinary story. A film made of long silences and unheard incessant talk. Of painful memories and hopeful looks. Of attending funerals as social occasions. Of unexpressible love. Of a beautifully photographed gray Scottish landscape.

Emma Thomson and Phyllida Law deliver powerful performances, although the incredibly poetic early teen Sam and Tom almost steal the movie.

When you are tired of idiotic movies that look all the same, go see or rent this one. Highly recommended.

Like any great film, this is close to the essence of life. In four poetic,

hearthwarming scenes, different generations of characters are entangled in a

longing for protection and affection. Two woman wait at a bus stop for a day out to a funeral, but behind their apparent, casual view on death lies a hidden fear for their own end. A new girl in town chases after a local boy, both search

through their mutual attraction towards each other. Two schoolboys are playing near the frozen sea and talk about their future. And all this is bound by the main story of a mother-daughter relationship. From the first flight over the seascape, to the final scene with one of the boys walking into the mist, everything is filmed and directed with the same sense for intense images and esthetic realism. And when on the tones of Liz Fraser, lovingly singing the end-credits, the film

ends.....and there's a certain sadness that one already has to leave this beautiful universe behind. "The Winter guest" is again (if their ever was doubt) the prove how superior European cinema is compared to the Hollywood-counterpart. I rest my case.

The Winter Guest (1997)

This has the depth and studious pace and multi-pronged construction of a good play. Which it once was. And like many plays turned to cinema, this carries along some first rate dramatic acting, namely by Emma Thompson and her real life mother, Phyllida Law, playing mother and daughter. As a small twist, the playwright, Sharman Macdonald, is mother to someone else we know, actress Keira Knightley.

The scene is a forlorn village in the dead of winter on a Scottish coast. We are shown the first turn of innocent love, a pair of boys playing with the edges of right and wrong, a pair of old woman touching on what death looks like if not felt, and the mother daughter pair who deal with a little of everything. Including photography, which serves as a classic artist's release, a way to take you out of your head and into what is out there in front of you.

Don't expect action, or even any great surprising turn of events. At first I went along with the slow, beautiful pace thinking it was all building to something. And I suppose it was, after all, but nothing that will shock you. It's better than that, and more real, and more touching. The movie and play are both quite good, lacking the finesse and originality of the most amazing works around us, drawing even from Ibsen or Chekhov in the realism and power of very ordinary people in faraway places. The acting is tremendous within the cool dry restraints of the plot, and in fact might make more the the play than is there. If you like a bit of reality without sensation, but just tenderness and meaning, this will work.

This film was not at all what I expected. There are four seemingly unrelated storylines all going on at once. I could have seen more of Emma Thompson and Phyllida Law (Thompson's mother both on and off screen -- terrific performance!), but that's a small quibble. This is one of those movies where you're not sure if you like it or not, but days later, when you're STILL thinking about it, you figure that there must have been SOMETHING to it after all...

There are other overall comments; I thought I would comment on it from a 'quiet psychological drama' POV. As the different pairs of people (mother/bereaved daughter, son/girlfriend, boys, old women) developed their stories, and sometimes criss-crossed, I saw a growing pattern in how they all dealt with their existential lone-ness and lack of drive. The fun but seemingly insignificant (at first) retired ladies hold the key the others seem to echo each in their own way: that if you have a friend, a journey of discovery, and something (or someone) to care for, you can grow in hard conditions, and move on. There are even almost mythical scenes of epiphany about this theme, but I don't know whether Rickmann or MacDonald intended this beautiful mythological pattern to answer the existential crises we face in modern times, but the richness and depth the characters grow into by the end of the film is something that really hit me. A fascinating study that follows the characters so carefully as to teach you things about yourself. Put this in your medicine cabinet for prompt temporary relief of existential despair. If they can find warmth in that bitter chill, there's hope for us too. Not for you if action movies are your thing, of course!

Meets my standard for 'movies that improved my life'.