On the South Bank, Ray (Maltman) is horrified when his holiday fling Elliot (Barratt) turns up, pledging eternal devotion despite the fact that Ray has a wife and kids. In snowy Soho, Daniel (Fielding) is annoyed that the heavily pregnant Layla (Grower) is pretending like their relationship is still functional. In a spacious flat, Brinie (Fox) prepares martinis for Rhys (Gift), who is suspiciously late coming home, once again. And filmmaker Alan (Wight) is wary when he comes home to find his younger actress squeeze Livy (Davis) practicing scenes with a writer (Cardinal).

There are several other stories crosscut in between these, all offering characters who struggle to say what they mean, in fine British style. The variety of settings and economic backgrounds keeps things surprising, as does the way plot strands unfurl through improvisation. Although this loose approach means that there's a nagging feeling that the film doesn't have much to say about the way we sometimes put the brakes on relationships.

Standouts in the ensemble are Fox's frustrated housewife, who throws her head back and laughs merrily even as we see the pain in her eyes. Oram has a terrific throwaway charm as a guy trying to maintain a long-distance romance by webcam. Maltman is excellent as a guy who can't remember anything about his first encounter with Barratt's earnest stalker. And Davis is hilarious as Livy, a bundle of energy who never stops trying to please everyone in the room, even if that means launching into an out-of-tune song. Her scenes with a wonderfully deadpan Wight are the film's highlight.

Writer-director Grower's low-fi video approach would look better on a small screen, but it's still striking. And there are clever ideas thrown around all the way through, such as the pressure to be "grown-up" while lying to be polite and making important decisions based on guilt. But the little revelation scenes at the end don't really offer much insight into the nature of each of these couplings. Grower might have done better to leave these scenes out and instead indulge in some deeper involvement in each splintering relationships.

themes, language

12.Sep.17