Daphné

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 the vibrant character portrait of a young woman on the threshold of a much-needed change." A film premise can hardly be more vague, yet that one sentence is a fair reflection of the plot. This is a movie that's greatly understated, with only scarce moments of vividness punctuating the runtime.

Emily Beecham draws every last vestige of nuance that she can out of her starring role as the title character. Daphne is morose, and somewhat despondent, in her directionless candor. She eventually shows just enough real honestly to reveal at least part of the reason behind her jaded agitation. But what's funny is that she doesn't seem drastically different from other characters in her demeanor, even as the film works tirelessly to set her apart.

This is curious. There are very few shots that don't center on Daphne, and even as she's consistently going nowhere in her life, it's a good guess that at least least half the movie is her walking or taking transportation to one place or another, or no place at all. It feels like 'Daphne' has a message it wants to say, something profound, but it stops short of meaningfully doing so. Like the character it focuses on, the film mostly just seems to abide, without any particular rhyme or reason. Maybe I'm just not properly attuned to pick up on its subtleties, but I watch this with an open mind, and no expectations, and just feel flummoxed.

I think the most I can say is that I do recognize myself as a viewer in Daphne. Having myself struggled with depression for years, I gather the same questioning in Daphne's distant self-isolation of what she's doing with her life, or what it's all for. Beyond that smudged mirror, I admit I'm having a hard time finding especial value here. I feel bad even saying that, but I'm kind of at a loss.

It's well made in a technical sense. It's not outright bad. But I simply don't know what it is that this movie wants to be, any more than its protagonist knows what she wants to be. 'Daphne' is a film to watch for those viewers with extraordinary patience, who appreciate the most unglamorous and uneventful of character studies. For any more general audience - well, good luck, and maybe you'll discern something here that I missed.

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.

Ignore all the reviews calling it boring, empty etc, written I assume by people that like explosions and flashing things but can't invest a little bit of effort in trying to appreciate a film that attempts to provoke thought and discussion

Performances are excellent especially from Emma Beecham, I sometimes had to remind myself this was a scripted film, so natural was her portrayal of Daphne - I mean is she really just Daphne filmed fly on the wall?? Brilliant

I loved her kind of offhand 'acting' complete with lines delivered so life like it was hard to tell if she had just come up with that stuff - and the direction where actors dialogue is left to happen in a very natural way - stunted, overlaps, talk overs - hard to act, and you can see some actors struggling with it, defaulting to more polished delivery.

I was drawn in by Daphne's frustrating, abrasive character and her descent in to self loathing - she's not easy to like, but that's the point - why is she like this, why does she not care about herself or much else

The film has a few clunky parts, like the psychiatrist for example, and some of the script and character development is under cooked but maybe that kind of fits with the impressionistic feel - over all the film offers real rewards for those willing to really watch and listen

I get it, not all characters have to go through great changes in a movie, but following such an unlikeable person for 90 minutes with no payoff at any time was a disappointment. Why did they cut all the interesting supporting characters loose? Are we supposed to feel as lost as Daphne feels? There where many opportunities to make this a way better film but I felt that it didn't go anywhere. Movie looked great at times though and the acting was good.