Daphné

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 a timeless British film. By which I mean it could have pretty much been made at any time in the last 50 years, and be just as 'meh.' It's one of those films that turns up on the telly and you look at the fashion and the streets but wonder why you're actually watching. It's a slight tale of a rather unlikable lonely girl who doesn't really know what to do with her life. Emily Beecham gives a believable performance but with a male writer and male director it is ultimately a bloke's fantasy idea of a 20something single girl about town. Everyone spouts their arch clever philosophies but anything that happens to Daphne doesn't really seem to affect her. That said, she's probably hardened by all those ghosts she used to hunt (which has clearly had an effect) and I applaud the film-maker's willingness to hold back Fred, Shaggy and Velma until the sequel.