Thank you to Kenta for recommending this film in an issue of VHS Tracking zine devoted to Summer Movies. The debut narrative feature by British director Joanna Hogg, Unrelated (2007) has a story when described that might sound like Shirley Valentine or a Diane Lane film like Under The Tuscan Sun. A lonely woman Anna (Kathryn Worth) on pause from her marriage, goes on a holiday with a friend, Verena (Mary Roscoe) and her family in a villa in Italy. There, Anna starts to feel an attraction to one of the younger men in the group, Oakley (Tom Hiddleston). But a film’s true value is not about what happens but how it is told. By using master shots, effective editing and naturalistic acting, this is an observational, compelling film about what happens when things are not happening, or the life that can be felt in the sustained tension between people. We are simply witnesses to Anna’s developing feelings, the body language and changing group dynamics as she finds herself hanging out more with the “Youngs”, the partying, drinking group of teenagers and twenty olds than their parents, the “Olds”. But then the movie also understands its main character is going through more complicated emotions and thoughts than what we see on the surface. I thought Kathryn Worth’s performance was amazing, you just feel so much for her and what plays out on her face in medium close ups, the ways she is accepted and sidelined in the group, and how believable the situation, both sweet and sad, all is. And a young Tom Hiddleston is very good as the playful, fetching young man. Definitely captures both the feeling of loneliness while being with a group of fun-loving people and how an inner life can be silently expressed. Unrelated is available to stream on Mubi. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 