Expected more

Absolutely brilliant

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

precise, minimalist, strange. almost a form of poem. maybe a visual haiku, story of a trip, a meeting and solitude. a circle. impressive images. memories from Bergman. and dust taste. a portrait. or only testimony. a search and its terminus point. a parable. or only fragments from a house and a garden. the mixing of algae remains for me the central image. a gesture like a prey. or only need to save essence of search. because, the actors , in this case, are shadows of places. and sign of subtle desire to be part of them. sure, after film end, a lot of hypothesis bloom. but it remains only the taste of honey and ash. and a white package. like last gift.

Based on the Locarno credentials of this movie (garnering six awards at that event, not counting many others) I decided to take a dive into some of my expatriate's work abroad. A very simple tale about Anne (Lotte Verbaek), who cuts away from everything connected to her previous life in Holland (most likely due to the death of her husband, but we can only speculate the real reason) and backpacks to Ireland. There she comes across an elderly fisherman, Martin, (the brilliant Stephen Rea), who lives in solitude in a desolate location close to the sea. On their encounter Anne is extremely rash, even rude, being in a state devoid of any warmth or friendliness. However they soon agree to an uneasy truce: Anne will work for food, but as long as no personal matters are touched.Set in untiringly beautiful locations of the Irish countryside the movie always manages to remain an eye-catcher (especially a fascinating peninsular, which is the main location of the movie), which helps keep the focus on the story itself, despite its very slowly unwinding rudimentary plot. Emotionwise I wasn't however fully convinced by Lotte Verbaek and additionally I did feel that several scenes/dialogues seemed not to fit the overall tone and logic of the movie. Nonetheless the whole story rings with a somber truth, as emotions and feelings catch the characters unawares, which leads to an absolutely heart-wrenching finale (the scene from the poster). Very simply crafted and set in the most basic human feelings it really has an unbelievable capacity to capture the attention and linger in memory.Despite it's flaws it remains a stunning, if very reserved, watch, which shows the immense potential of Polish-born Urszula Antoniak.

After finding herself alone and detached from society, an unnamed woman (Lotte Verbeek), backpacks through Ireland seemingly wanting to lead a solitary existence. With no more than the clothes she has on her back and some utensils like a small tent, the woman discovers an isolated house belonging to Martin (Stephen Rea) who also appears to be living his life alone.Nothing Personal tells an intriguing story of loneliness and this becomes quite apparent due to the less than normal use of dialogue, minimal use of accompanying music, controlled camera shots and the muted colour scheme which fills every scene. All of these traits slowly increase as the film continues, and from a visual and audio manner it is great to see the relationship between the woman and Martin develops. The narrative uses a linear flow but it becomes quite a shame that it is broken into noticeable chapters: each chapter begins with a black screen and a word, such as 'marriage'. Beyond hurting the flow of the film these wordings do not exactly portray the tangible events about to occur, but rather abstractly feel as if the director needed to guide the viewer into a particular point of thought in regards to the events about to take place. This guidance erodes at the loneliness theme of the narrative and inevitably makes it more difficult for the viewer to truly appreciate the resonance of story and the characters. An aspect which could have gotten a little extra information for story purposes is in regards to the history of both main characters. By the conclusion, the plot ultimately retains an element of uncertainty as it is difficult to truly gauge the strength of the conclusion on characters who the audience knows almost nothing about.While neither Verbeek nor Rea provide strong acting performances both are adequate in depicting the different means by which people approach a feeling of isolation. Rea's character takes a more traditional approach to the experience whereas Verbeek seems somewhat off-the-wall. This is not a bad thing as this helps to differentiate the characters and make them more unique, but some of her actions can seem rather odd in an almost overly poetic manner.Nothing Personal marks the full-length feature debut for Urszula Antoniak. Her control on scenes really does allow for some lovely landscape imagery, if muted by the colour scheme and harsh weather that surrounds the film, for the viewer to gaze up. It all works in enhancing the reclusiveness of the characters and the visual aids thus synch nicely with the thematic elements being explored. This naturalness is barred by some odd editing problems which occur infrequently.The film contains no violence while language is strong but used rarely. One scene could constitute as sexual in nature but otherwise there is none to speak of, yet breast nudity does feature in two or three scenes.There is an emotionally powerful story to be told within Nothing Personal and this is noted by a wonderful use of minimal music and colour variety, however it never really succeeds as expected. The narrative does a decent job on impressing the experience of loneliness onto the viewer but, it is unfortunate that Verbeek and Rea are unable to find the connection between their respective character and the narrative material, and the story can feel thin when the credits roll. Still, Nothing Personal is not a film which should be easily dismissed.

Belying its' title, 'Nothing Personal' is clearly a very personal film. Set on the west coast of Ireland, this two-hander explores the decision to leave virtually everything behind and offers a study of loneliness and reconnection through a gradual re-building of trust. With strong performances from both leads, I was increasingly absorbed as their characters unfolded, and the film is at its' best in the gentle humour and the slowly developing relationship between them; there are some lovely touches and moments, like stopping the wind blowing through the grass.Unfortunately this undoubted emotional engagement seems to have come at the expense of narrative coherence. Whilst I don't expect everything handed to me on a plate, it felt quite an uphill struggle trying to follow the Director's clues about what was actually happening. I couldn't quite work out if the chronology was chopped up or not, and I felt the main device of leaving history unspoken between the pair was unnecessarily allowed to overwhelm plot lucidity at times, leaving me with too many unanswered questions for it to be a consistently rewarding experience; I look forward to reading the future IMDb message board musings of more perceptive viewers. I suspect the film will be compared to Ondine – similar location and 'strong, mysterious, beautiful foreigner' theme –and whilst undoubtedly more cerebral and emotionally resonant, it's a shame that its' increasing tendency to veer into a somewhat perplexing swamp rather lets it down.If you have a penchant for 'hands swirling round in seaweed' close-ups, then this is certainly the film for you – otherwise, despite its' spirit and intrigue, the level of confusion means that for me, it won't stay in the memory for too long.