Someone once said, "It's the singer, not the song". Here, it's difficult to know which is responsible for the effect created by this film -- the cast, or the writing (and by extension, directing). Certainly, Ms. Hogg deserves credit for her sure, understated camera-work and pithy screenplay. The film demonstrates, in equal measure, both a sense of forward movement (in terms of plot and tension), and a verisimilitude of action and speech. There is a quasi-documentary feel to the proceedings; we enter and view scenes from odd angles, with the camera in a corner, or down a hall from the intended dialogue; scenes begin and end in medias res. The effect is never, however, mannered or jarring, but is calculated for maximum dispatch in terms of character and plot development.However, the performances themselves are so fine, so delicately thatched and inked as to leave the impression of real people, and not "roles" played by professionals. Chief among them is Ms. Worth's turn as Anna, who is not quite as hapless, or feckless, as some of the other reviewers on this site would have indicated. It is interesting to see those viewers' reactions to her pass at the younger Oakley which characterize it as disgusting, or out-of-touch. In another movie (say an Irvine Welsh adaptation, for instance) a woman like Anna would get at least two fairly raunchy sex scenes. This is not to short-change Ms. Worth's physical attractiveness; in fact, the heat between her character and that of Mr. Hiddleston's is palpable. But Ms. Hogg is not after the same sort of effect as Irvine Welsh; this film is a slow-burner. And Ms. Worth finds her footing surely in the lazy Tuscan atmosphere, conveying thousands of words with just a look. Take, for instance, her semi-squint in reaction to Oakley's prying questions about children. The answer is writ large between the drawn-up lower lids, the slight pucker to the mouth. Further to Ms. Worth's credit is that her background is theatre and opera (she has done some choral roles with major productions) neither of which genre is famous for the slight gesture, or subtlety of reading. Here, though, she is "playing chamber music", and not blasting grand opera to the back of the house. All told, this is probably one of the best films to come across this reviewer's screen in the last twenty years.

The antithesis of all Shirley Valentine stands for.You've been quarreling with your husband, and things aren't looking too rosy in your future. So, you jump at the chance of going on holiday with your best friend to Italy, with her extended family. While there, you feel a bit of a midlife crisis coming on... and start hanging around with your mate's son and his clique rather than your fellow 'oldies'. Because you got drunk with them a few times, and he saw you naked emerging from a swimming pool, you think there might be sparks between you and this guy... who's about 25 years your junior. But when you offer to spend the night with him, you discover all these dreams are pure fantasy. Depression quickly sets in, and in a fit or rage you announce a secret to your friend that you promised to keep hidden about a crashed car. Whoops.The heroine (played by Kathryn Worth) is quite a pathetic case, and I felt myself inwardly cringe as she gallivanted around with youngsters with whom she had nothing in common, in a vain attempt to appear 'cool'. NEWSFLASH: you're not 18 anymore. And following around teenagers, putting on a demeanor so fake even a blind man could see it is the height of desperation. I'm not saying it's time to whip out the ol' pipe and slippers, but maybe communicating with your own age group is a better idea than embarrassing yourself in front of a completely different generation who probably wonder "What the hell's going on"? Don't get me started on her failed seduction of her so-called BFF's kid either. CREEPY.Anyway, it's a good story (if a little long-winded) and when the s**t hits the fan, it turns into something evilly compelling, like a multi-storey car crash. The happy conclusion felt a bit forced, everything was solved a little too easily for my liking. But it's still an honest, admirable little indie feature, and a cautionary tale for all those middle-aged ladies who try to relive their misbegotten youth... 6/10

This is a hugely impressive debut by writer/director Joanna Hogg. It is an uncomfortably realistic film in that you feel at times that you are being a voyeur and eavesdropper at real events. That the characters are so realistic is a tribute to Hogg's skills and to the quality of the actors. In that respect I was reminded of Mike Leigh who also makes movies that really do seem to intrude upon and depict the real world. In a sense, of course, not all of us go to see movies to see life at its most real and (in this case) in the raw. There is nothing escapist or improbable about the unfolding of events in Unrelated nor are any of the characters unlikely depictions either. More's the pity for a more ghastly bunch of arrogant, insular, selfish sons and daughters of privilege it would be hard to find. Not too hard actually in honesty for this type of English man and woman is all too commonly seen in the leafy suburbs and the Tory Blue counties. Here they are summering in Tuscany with a holiday lifestyle as empty as it is privileged. So empty that they resort to infantile games to pass the time between meals and indulge in banter that suggests that they have libraries in inverse proportion to their wealth – which is considerable.There are two main themes. First the battle between the "olds" the forty-something adults and the younger set in their late teens. Key conflict is that between George, a prosperous prat with a high regard for himself and a low regard for his son Oakley with whom he has an alpha-male contest. The second theme is that of the lonely, confused and menopausal visitor Anna and how she relates as something of an outsider to the rest of the party. She is going through a crisis with her husband who was supposed to accompany her to Italy but who in the end stays at home. Does she want to leave him, he her or do they both want a new start or to "try again"? The unfolding of this happens as we listen in to one side, Anna's, of a series of stressed mobile phone conversations. Anna is clearly something of a "poor relation" to the main characters who are wealthier and for self-assured than she is – albeit in a repulsively conceited way. This applies especially to Oakley who is attractive in a pre-Raphaelite sort of way and for whom Anna quite soon has urges – not withstanding the full generation gap in age between them. There is a trip to Sienna during which Anna certainly flirts self-consciously with Oakley and maybe he with her – we cannot be sure of his motives, until later.Joanna Hogg films the whole story in a cleverly under-stated way. Even the lovely Tuscany countryside and the beauties of Sienna are toned down by the use of a gentle filter – at no time are we in a travelogue in "Unrelated". The climax of the film is an event which could have been serious, but actually wasn't. When George works out what happened in this event he blows his top in an overemotional way with Oakley who he blames for what occurred. It is a pretty nasty scene which we hear but do not see - a very clever device that further enhances the verisimilitude.Is "Unrelated" a film with a "cause" to promote? Probably not unless it is to confirm that at its most supercilious and uncaring man's nature is pretty malicious. We know that before we see the film of course, but what the film succeeds in doing is to show that a group of people who would probably regard themselves as being educated and enlightened are in fact hypocritical, selfish and irredeemably self-centred – especially in their treatment of their visitor who is subjected to the minimum of courtesy and the maximum of patronising contempt. Anna is the only character we care about and we do feel sorry for her – and there is some satisfaction that at the end of the film it is she, after the revelation about what has caused her current melancholy, looks to have some resolution in her life. And the rest of the party move on, no doubt unaware of Anna's turmoil, and back to a world at home in leafy England where they can parade and pomp about how "heavenly" Tuscany was again.

I watched this film recently at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I found it a provocative and, at times, uncomfortable film. The protagonist is Anna; a childless, unhappily married, pre-menopausal woman who, because of these things, believes herself to be on the periphery of society. During the course of the film she makes a series of questionable choices and eventually has a meltdown. This all takes place while Anna is holidaying in an Italian villa with some friends and their teenage children.The storytelling is often visual, with evocative lighting and cinematography. The dialogue is subdued. Shots are framed to show Anna's relationship to the environment she is inhabiting. In one scene she is on her mobile phone, emersed in an argument with her husband, her body turned away from a beautiful landscape; in another the camera is focused just on Anna's face, we can't see what is happening around her, we are also trapped in her self-absorption. A starkly thematic shot, towards the end of the film, captures everyone walking along a road; the other adults and the teenagers are together in two groups, Anna follows from behind but she walks alone. But this 'aloneness' is something she has created. She is so smothered by her misery she fails to recognize the ways in which she is part of the group: she is a friend to the adults and an extra adult to the teenagers. When she finds herself preferring the company of the teenagers, instead of being a mature and guiding influence, she becomes dangerously complicit in their reckless behaviour.By the end of the film Anna is somewhat calmed, she's had a cathartic talk with her sympathetic friend, something that was overdue. But I'm not sure how much progress she has made; it seems she might just fall back into her previous life without any real change, either within herself or externally. I was hoping she would transcend her 'unrelatedness', even embrace it and understand that she doesn't have to follow a conventional path to be involved.