Review by Doug Cooper
Stars Matthew Rhys, Marta Lubos, Nahuel Perez Biscayart,
Duffy, Nia Roberts, Matthew Gravelle | Written by Laurence Coriat
Certification UK 15 | Runtime 118 minutes | Directed by Marc Evans
This is an indie arthouse affair that gives us two parallel tales that never coalesce. In one storyline, a Welsh couple, actress Gwen (Roberts) and photographer Rhys (Gravelle), travel to Welsh Patagonia so he can photograph various church buildings. Having been together seven years, their relationship is slowly delineated and we see that they're under severe strain, especially as they are having problems in conceiving a child. Gwen is attracted to their driver in Patagonia, Mateo (Rhys), a relaxed, free spirited guy who reciprocates her feelings.
In the other storyline, elderly Argentinian Cerys (Lubos) journeys to the Welsh hills to locate a farm that her deceased mother lived at, accompanied by young Alejandro (Biscayart), an awkward adolescent who gets rather more than he bargained for on the trip - such as a drunken binge with some Poles and a fling with a gorgeous student (Duffy) when he and Cerys are staying at a caravan park.
It's a slow, meditative effort that doesn't add up to much. Director Evans requires one to be patient in order to reap whatever rewards he's offering but it never catches fire and one is ultimately left wondering what the point of it all is. The lovely scenery cannot disguise the tedium of the enterprise. Worthy but banal.