The Souvenir (2019) is an English movie written and directed by Joanna Hogg.
The movie stars Honor Swinton Byrne as Julie--a young, privileged film student, Tom Burke as Anthony, who works for the British Foreign Service. Tilda Swinton has a supporting role as Rosalind, Julie's mother. (Swinton is Honor Swinton Byrne's mother in real life as well.)
All three actors are excellent, but the plot is hard to swallow. (OK--director Hogg says this is semi-autobiographical about someone she met when she was in film school. That's hard to swallow as well.)
Tom Burke's character is easy to spot as someone with whom you don't want your daughter to fall in love. However, neither mother nor daughter appear to notice. (No one notices that he's never actually at work in the Foreign Service Office either.) Julie is madly, totally in love with him. It's painful to watch.
We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked as well as it would in the theater. For me, it didn't work at all. The only reason I even gave it a 6.0 is because of Tilda Swinton, who makes her tiny role appear important. The IMDb rating is a weak 6.6. My thought was, "Joanna Hogg, Hilda Swinton and her daughter--how bad could it be?" Now I know.
The movie stars Honor Swinton Byrne as Julie--a young, privileged film student, Tom Burke as Anthony, who works for the British Foreign Service. Tilda Swinton has a supporting role as Rosalind, Julie's mother. (Swinton is Honor Swinton Byrne's mother in real life as well.)
All three actors are excellent, but the plot is hard to swallow. (OK--director Hogg says this is semi-autobiographical about someone she met when she was in film school. That's hard to swallow as well.)
Tom Burke's character is easy to spot as someone with whom you don't want your daughter to fall in love. However, neither mother nor daughter appear to notice. (No one notices that he's never actually at work in the Foreign Service Office either.) Julie is madly, totally in love with him. It's painful to watch.
We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked as well as it would in the theater. For me, it didn't work at all. The only reason I even gave it a 6.0 is because of Tilda Swinton, who makes her tiny role appear important. The IMDb rating is a weak 6.6. My thought was, "Joanna Hogg, Hilda Swinton and her daughter--how bad could it be?" Now I know.