Unrelated (2007)

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The film is called Unrelated, but I do find it Relatable, as someone who has, on many occasions, spent holidays with other people's families. It is at once an escape (there are very little stakes for you, mostly an observer), but it's also alienating, you can feel walled off. I respect director Joanna Hogg's decision to mostly keep her distance, to the point where conversations are half-heard under Italian cicadas and wind blowing through the the cypresses. It makes us feel like Anna (Kathryn Worth), not really a part of events. But if it's a thematic strength, it's also the film's biggest weakness, an obstacle to engaging emotionally with the story. Still, it does some things very well. The feeling of vacationing in some villa, perhaps just a little too long where it becomes awkward. The unrequited feelings Anna develops for baby Tom Hiddleston (all of 26 here), ambiguously unrequited as he is naturally flirty. Hogg's camera gets closer and more intimate in those moments, and I wish the film had been more like that. It's still a good female mid-life crisis story, subtle and observational, but there are so many great European Holiday dramas that you have get up pretty early in the morning to compete with them. 3 years 3 months ago