manders_steve

You never know what Olivia Coleman will turn up as next. This time, she's a depressive divorced mid 40s academic Leda Caruso holidaying alone in Greece. A large, noisy and insensitive family destroys her relaxation on the beach and her obsessive observations bring back painful memories of her self-perceived inadequacies as a mother. I'm not too sure why she didn't just go somewhere else along the gorgeous beach to get away from them, but of course, there'd be no story line for this film at all!

The interesting part is Jessie Buckley filling in the earlier back story as the younger Leda. It's a pity they don't look more convincingly like the same person 20 years apart in age, and it took me a while to work out who the younger Leda was. The locale settings were great, and Olivia's tentativeness holidaying alone was convincing. But I couldn't help feeling I was looking at Queen Elizabeth II surreptitiously nicking off from the palace and trying out holidaying alone in Greece, particularly when she smiled that careful QEII smile. At least that would explain why she was so reticent to reveal much, but I suppose good old British reserve could do the same thing.

Dakota Johnson was great as Nina, the mother in the noisy family who stirred up all these reminiscences and memories.

I found it slow. If it engendered the level of emotional engagement for you I suppose it was after, it might be OK. But adding it all up, I can't say I found it a great experience. It might have been better in a real cinema rather than Netflix at home. But somehow I doubt better picture and sound would have addressed the main shortcomings. In fact, they might have made them more obvious.