Here and Now

Lauren Johns stars as mouthy and obnoxious but attractive young London inner-city girl Grace, who is stuck spending a week in the Wye Valley countryside with her arguing parents (Susan Lynch, William Nadylam), who are trying to save their faltering marriage. Grace sulks moodily around but then she meets quiet, good-mannered, handsome country boy Say (Andy Rush), who, oddly enough, finds Grace both obnoxious and attractive. Against all odds, and virtually wordlessly, he starts to court her. As Say takes Grace around the scenic grandeur of the Herefordshire countryside during the dying days of the summer, the couple search for distraction from their unhappy lives. Against all odds, they find each other. Lisle Turner writes and directs in his first feature. There are very considerable signs of imagination, talent and promise here. It's hardly a film at all, more of a fragile poetic fragment. But it's really quite mesmerising attractive with its good heart, earnest performances and lush shots of the startlingly bleakly beautiful countryside.