Aftersun – REVIEW
Image: Aftersun film still
A movie about a divorced man who takes his young daughter on a holiday to a Turkish resort hoping to spend quality time bonding and reconnecting initially seems a simplistic tale to tell, until the hardships or limitations associated with the storytelling process surface.
Painstakingly sluggish throughout, the main problem was that the story lacked substance. There wasn’t really much to tell and the absence of a musical score also heightened the dreariness.
Compounding the annoyance of sitting through this movie which also required colour grading, was that it felt like a made for television movie of the week. The non-conventional style of filming techniques utilised, such as inserting extra-long camera shots on irrelevant images which would traditionally be used in experimental movies, also added to the bizarre nature of this movie.
The strong Scottish accents of the cast at times were incoherent which also fueled restlessness and the inability to feel any emotion or connection toward either character. Where were the sub-titles?
Aftersun felt like a movie that was produced for, and to be enjoyed by pompous critics and it should be quite interesting to see whether it finds an audience in arthouse cinemas.
This movie has been overrated and so has the performance by Paul Mescal the actor who plays the role of the father, who nonsensically, has received an Oscar award nomination for his somewhat banal performance.
There may be a sigh of relief once this father/daughter holiday comes to an end as audiences can return to their own lives and quickly forget they wasted hard-earned cash watching this trivial piece of filmmaking.
★★
In cinemas February 23rd
