The Souvenir

While I'm normally a fan of this kind of production, The Souvenir did very little to draw me in. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I didn't find it to be all that compelling or engaging. I wouldn't go out of my way to see this film if I were you.

Another film from Joanna Hogg brings another portrait of emotionally repressed, deeply unhappy members of the upper middle classes. To make things worse, the film relies on the over-familliar trope of the struggles of a would-be artist (the most boring of all subjects for an artist to consider), in this case a young woman contemporary to the director and with an apparent aspiration to become a Hogg-like film-maker. In places the film seems to acknowlege the inherent ridiculousness of its protagonist; but she recieves a sympathetic treatment. Hogg's style is frankly bizarre: the opposite of melodramatic, she prefers to show her characters going quielty about their business in the aftermath of unseen trauma. Even the wider structure of the film seems (deliberatley) artless, things happen (mostly offscreen) but there's no attempt to construct a plot in the orthodox sense, to manipulate the sequence of events to create a well-paced story. In general, I hate Hollywood blockbusters with their predictable narrative arcs, and love a good piece of miserablism; but the director has to meet me half-way. In fact, although I was profoundly irritated for the film's first half, I found the remainder more watchable than Hogg's two previous movies. But the basic subject (naive woman whose boyfriend is a heroin addict) was covered with far more wit and perception by Rachel Cusk in her first novel 'Saving Agnes', without the same level of underlying self-regard.

As much as I enjoy the better-quality summer blockbusters, I also really appreciate good independent films in the summer as a welcome and refreshing alternative to all the franchise movies and explosions. With that in mind as well as this film's terrific reviews, I was hoping that "The Souvenir" would be an excellent film. Sadly, I was let down. While the film certainly isn't bad, it has enough flaws to make it seem a bit empty at times.

The film tells the story of a young film student (Honor Swinton Burke) who begins to fall in love. (I won't say anything else to avoid giving something away.) The film is impressive on a technical level, with strong cinematography and superb production design. Sounds are mixed well throughout the film's duration, and the film's understated editing is very well done. Unfortunately, the character development of the male lead is almost nonexistent, which really damages the movie as a whole. It's a very "cold" movie emotionally, which can work in some films where the characters' emotions are not on the front burner. But for a romantic drama that expects the viewer to care about its two leads, this stoic tone is both jarring and understatedly erratic. While Swinton Burke is fine in the lead role, and some of the short scenes discussing her interest in filmmaking are interesting enough, her performance is rather flat. Tilda Swinton is terrific (as always,) but she is very sadly wasted and given very minimal screen time. While the film's cinematography is often very good, it can also be repetitive. For example, just how many shots of the front of opening and closing elevator doors are in this movie? If you have to start thinking about that while watching the movie after the first several, then there are too many. I also believe the film would have been better if it had a score. I was really hoping to love this movie given how great the trailer and reviews from critics were, but I was left a bit disappointed. 6.5/10

Quite early on I could tell what was going on in the film. I even had a guess at what the end would be. Despite this, I continued watching expecting more, something big, something shocking and I never really got it. The director does a great job at showing the ins and outs of a toxic relationship, however, it's just not enough.

Based on a true story: in the 1980s, Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) is a young British woman from a wealthy family and attending film school. She hooks up with Anthony (Tom Burke) who gradually takes advantage of her while trying to hide his serious personality flaws and habits.

Swinton Byrne does not, in any way, give a bad performance; in fact, it is rather good. But she lacks the depth and subtlety required to carry the main role in a two-hour movie. Adding to the trouble is Burke whose Tom is as bland as kale and as common as a condo construction project in downtown Toronto. This character is so lacking in charisma and charm that the film becomes an unintentional mystery as the viewer is left to wonder what Julie could possibly see in him with or without his shortcomings.

A sad irony is a scene in the film in which a film teacher explains that "Psycho" was a success as most scenes were normal, thus making its abnormal, frightening scenes stand out more. If only writer/director Joanna Hogg had followed the advice that she had written for one of her secondary characters. While the narrative of "The Souvenir" is consistent, it does not have any scene that stands out, making it long and dull.

A saving grace was the presence of Tilda Swinton (Swinton Byrne's real-life mother) portraying Julie's mother - emphasis on the word 'presence' which was missing in the primary performances. The film would have benefited with more scenes that included Swinton Senior.

"The Souvenir" is hyper-praised in the most baffling of ways by most critics. One of the praises is that it's based on a true story. Well, there are billions of true stories that don't make good films. Sadly, "The Souvenir" is one of them. - dbamateurcritic