It came out in UK back in September. But I never thought anything of it and did not see it then. I seemed to have missed a trick as it has been getting nothing positive praise.
However, as it feels quite appropriate to watch a film set in the Yorkshire dales at the Leeds International Film Festival, I guess it was just meant to be for me to see it now.
I ended up enjoying it. The biggest thing I got out of it was its sweetness and innocence the director Francis Lee had with the story as a whole and between our two central characters. It was a romance that I believed in and that the reasoning for it could be seen as quite a sad one.
The reason for saying that is that the film also portrays the tough life in farming in the UK and that some people doing this profession can feel a bit lost from society. I felt this was a very true presentation of that type of life. You can feel the tension and frustration about working in this environment, and it is also shown in the strong writing.
The performances are all pretty strong. Josh O'Connor is a great lead and definitely encompassed the vision of a true Yorkshireman. Everything he did I felt to be highly believable and you just feel sympathetic for him wanting to do something with himself.
His chemistry with Alec Secareanu was developed really well and just elevated O'Connor to the peak of his abilities.
The star of the show for me was Ian Hart's character as the father to the central character. You could feel his sadness that he knew that this profession was slowly dieing out and his son could be the last. With that and his characters situation, that just made quite an emotional finale and Hart's performance was spot on.
Gemma Jones added a nice bit of class and while only be a supporting role, her contribution felt integral to the story.
With the film being shot in Yorkshire (Keighley to be exact), showing the true beauty and brutality had to be essential. I can safely say it was shot beautifully despite there being very few wide shots.
This is a film that I think Yorkshire should be proud of being the backdrop to. I thought it was really moving, charming and yet also quite depressing at times. It shows the sign of the times in this part of the world so perfectly.
2017 has become quite a year for gay romance dramas. With the success of Moonlight at the Oscars to the release of Call Me By Your Name recently. We are now starting many more people accept these films not just as a gay romance, but more as a romance.
It will be interesting to see how it works in America as most of the characters have a fairly strong Yorkshire accent. I don't think they will need to subtitle this, as the story is told more from a visual standpoint and there's heavy in its dialogue anyway.
Rating: 7/10
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