I'm afraid to say this was a real disappointment. I had high hopes from the director/writer of "Roy Hollsdotter Live" which was nothing short of fantastic; well understood characters and a strong narrative. But Matthew Saville's work of a longer format was not successful. Don't get me wrong, there is some great stuff here; some good performances (particularly chemistry between Cowell and Nixon whose shared scenes are brilliant) and nice dialogue. The music was well conceived, using constant pitches to replicate the discomfort of Tinnitus. But this is mixed with some very weak dialogue and performance, scenes that go nowhere or drag on, sapping any inertia initially built. The problem it seems is there is too much meandering and pondering, too many unnecessary characters and what seemed to be a central element to the main characters discomfort (Tinnitus) ended up fading to very little. Other characters have equally pointless conditions and illnesses that just don't have enough reason to be there. It's a mess. The material just doesn't seem to sustain a feature length film and is filled with stuff that is irrelevant to the core story. I'm sure if this was cut to a short it would be intense. I really wanted to enjoy this film but it just felt directionless. I will be looking forward to Saville's next film. There is something there, it just needs to grow.
