Rather simple story, sparse dialogue. Some powerful scenes. The first coupling of the two main characters was not believable.
Strong scenes mostly non-verbal. For example: Gheorghe forcing the arms/hands of the reluctant almost feral John to explore simple sensuality - in contrast to John's previous brutal, brief, anonymous couplings.
John's encounter with a girl from his schooldays who acknowledged his sexuality suggested that John had once opened up and been honest, but this was not developed and seemed inconsistent with his current destructive behaviour.
When the dialog is so sparse in key scenes, it's so important that each word is clearly enunciated (or other dialogue exists to compensate) and this sometimes did not happen which caused ambiguity and uncertainty of interpretation for me. The father's speech was impaired so I could not understand whether the father understood that John had fallen for Gheorghe as John said he wanted to run the farm his way.
I also found it hard to believe that plain speaking Yorkshire country folk (the father, the gran) would be silent about the relationship. Supporting actors Gemma Jones and Ian Hart very good also.
So a satisfying nice film but I wanted it to be better.
Strong scenes mostly non-verbal. For example: Gheorghe forcing the arms/hands of the reluctant almost feral John to explore simple sensuality - in contrast to John's previous brutal, brief, anonymous couplings.
John's encounter with a girl from his schooldays who acknowledged his sexuality suggested that John had once opened up and been honest, but this was not developed and seemed inconsistent with his current destructive behaviour.
When the dialog is so sparse in key scenes, it's so important that each word is clearly enunciated (or other dialogue exists to compensate) and this sometimes did not happen which caused ambiguity and uncertainty of interpretation for me. The father's speech was impaired so I could not understand whether the father understood that John had fallen for Gheorghe as John said he wanted to run the farm his way.
I also found it hard to believe that plain speaking Yorkshire country folk (the father, the gran) would be silent about the relationship. Supporting actors Gemma Jones and Ian Hart very good also.
So a satisfying nice film but I wanted it to be better.