Directed by:
Andrew SteggallScreenplay:
Andrew SteggallCinematography:
Brian FawcettComposer:
Jools ScottCast:
Juliet Stevenson, Alex Lawther, Niamh Cusack, Patrice Juiff, Finbar Lynch, Phénix Brossard, Guillaume ToboPlots(1)
Beatrice (Juliet Stevenson, Bend it Like Beckham) and her teenage son Elliot (Alex Lawther, The Imitation Game) spend a week packing up the contents of their remote holiday house in the South of France. Fifteen-year-old Elliot struggles with his sexuality and she in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage is coming to an end. When an enigmatic local teenager, Clément (Phénix Brossard) enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and finally, each other. (Peccadillo Pictures)
(more)Reviews (1)
Departure deals with both troubled adolescence and troubled marriage and family relationships, and I think it would have been more effective if it had focused properly on just one of them. While the issues in question are well acted, I felt like they skimmed the surface rather than fully sinking beneath them. At times, the film even tried to be poetic – the underwater scene with Rusalka speaks for itself – but I still felt that much more could have been made of it. I felt the emotion, especially in Juliet Stevenson's acting, but there are other, similarly-themed films that simply got me more.
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