Sigh.
It starts so well.
Writer/director Jan-Ole Gerster’s brooding character piece initially radiates curiosity.
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| Partly out of kindness, partly out of sympathyfor the clearly unhappy Anne (Stacey Martin), Tom (Sam Riley, right) impulsively offers to spend a day touring her, her husband Dave (Jack Farthing) and their young son around the island of Fuerteventura. |
The disapproving receptionist, Maria (Bruna Cusí), hands him the week’s schedule, noting that he looks as rough as he feels. But Tom is popular — the schedule is fully booked — so his behavior apparently is tolerated by the Folks In Charge.
Tom spends the day cheerfully — but mindlessly — tossing tennis balls, lobbing and returning serves. He heads each night to Waikiki, a rowdy techno nightclub where he dances, smokes too much, drinks too much, does some drugs, and sometimes winds up in bed with a lovely lady (or two). He’s a blackout drunk, waking each morning with little (if any) memory of recent past events.
Lather, rinse, repeat: every day, apparently stretching back quite awhile. There isn’t much else to do, on this island setting of Fuerteventura. Tom is stuck, for reasons we don’t yet know.
(We rarely see him eat anything, which seems an odd oversight.)
Tom sees a fresh group of tourists arrive one day; one woman pauses, while stepping from the bus, and shoots him a contemplative glance. She appears later at his ramshackle office — where he keeps a concealed bottle of vodka, for occasional daytime snorts — having been directed there by Maria.
She introduces herself as Anne (Stacy Martin), and explains that she’d like tennis lessons for her 7-year-old son, Anton. Tom suggests his twice-weekly children’s group classes, but she insists on private lessons. Tom hesitates, then acquiesces, knowing that the French couple booked for the next day’s 9 a.m. slot rarely shows up.
Anne and Anton (Dylan Torrell) arrive on time, and Tom is impressed by the boy’s ability. Future bookings are made; on the next one, Tom meets Anne’s husband, Dave (Jack Farthing), quickly revealed to be a horse’s ass. Tom does the family a favor; Dave offers a cash thank-you, which Tom refuses. Instead, clearly liking Anne and Anton, Tom allows himself to be drawn into their island activities; he encourages as much, by spending a day touring them throughout Fuerteventura.
Tom sees and hears stuff. Dave is constantly on his phone, and the conversations don’t seem satisfying. Anne comments, at one point — bitterness evident — that Dave is “running her father’s company into the ground.”
During these early scenes, composer Dascha Dauenhauer’s disconcerting, piano-based score is put to excellent use.
Hitchcockian apprehension and tension slowly build, as the next few days pass. Does Dave hope to lure Tom into some sort of financial scheme? Anne’s behavior with Tom becomes more playfully flirty; does she want a “vacation affair” ... or does she hope to groom Tom into killing her husband?
Something is about to happen.
And something does, quite unexpectedly. After which, it feels like a net is slowly tightening around Tom.
Riley is so good in this role, that it frequently doesn’t feel like acting. We eventually learn that Tom has ample reason for his resigned stasis; a long-ago shoulder injury derailed what promised to be a superstar tennis career. Riley perfectly conveys this guy’s morose inability to move forward.
Gerster and co-scripters Blaz Kutin and Lawrie Doran convey an atmosphere of disconnection that fuels Tom’s passive, self-destructive effort to escape reality. And what better setting, than a gorgeous island resort?
Martin’s Anne is quietly mysterious, often suggesting more with sidelong glances and pregnant pauses, than with idle conversation. Martin’s body language is sensual, in a manner that could be playfully harmless ... or laden with possibility.
Farthing is spot-on as the insufferably arrogant and condescending Dave; we hate him on sight. Nothing changes that opinion, as time passes.
Pep Ambròs is excellent as Jorge, a local cop who long ago befriended Tom, and watches out for him. Jorge doesn’t think much of Dave and Anne, and makes that opinion clear. Ramiro Blas is persuasive as the dogged, detail-oriented Inspector Mazo, who arrives from the nearby island of Lanzarote, to head up what becomes an increasingly confusing investigation.
However...
The story is larded with odd and unnecessary sidebar details. Tom is good friends with Raik (Ahmed Boulane) and Amina (Fatima Adoum), a transplanted Middle Eastern couple who run a camel farm (seriously?), where one of the beasts constantly escapes and wanders off elsewhere. We expect this relationship to serve some sort of purpose, but it doesn’t; worse yet, the wayward camel later serves as a cruel and rather tasteless red herring.
Mention repeatedly is made of the volcano on a nearby island, which “might erupt” at any moment. This, too, ultimately proves pointless.
But nothing is worse than the story’s flat and unsatisfying denouement, which fails to deal with a major issue, thus betraying all the mood and suspense leading up to it ... at which point, the film suddenly becomes an insufferable waste of time.
Even though it started so well...
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