BFI London Film Festival: Adore

Roz (Wright) and Lil (Watts) are best friends. Roz’s son Tom (Frencheville) and Lil’s son Ian (Samuel) are also best friends. So far so good right? Now here’s where it gets weird. Ian starts sleeping with Roz first. Then Tom starts sleeping with Liz. Yes, the two female best friends are engaged in romantic relationships with each other’s sons. It doesn’t take long for them to find out about all of this, and even when they do, their reactions are shockingly tame. They don’t mind, as they want each other to be happy, which is fine for now, but we all know this arrangement is one that cannot possibly have a happy ending… right? More definitely so since Roz is actually married.

But the way everything keeps its peace and quiet for quite some time is what’s remarkable. The four of them are still as chummy as ever, and it’s back to their old routines of going to the beach; the two beautiful mothers lying in the sand soaking up the sun, and the two good-looking sons going surfing, exactly the same picture they’ve been painting over the years. And for a good hour the pair of relationships goes on without a single noticeable hitch. And with the four actors sharing convincing enough chemistry, it’s easy to buy into their love, despite how inappropriate and preposterous it all may have seemed at the start.

Having spent so much time on how happy they are, there is an ill-placed time-jump that fast-forwards two years of their lives in which we find that they’re still hopelessly in love and devoted. With hardly any details or significant happenings to back this all up, the narrow scope through which we view the characters does limit how much of this the audience can actually find believable.

All good things must come to an end however, after more than an hour or so, leaving only 40 minutes to come to some kind of conclusion for this complicated situation. Reality sinks in for the characters, and one sensible person of the group decides to call it quits. What looked so picturesque and felt perfect as the four of them frolicked on the beach not caring for one moment about real-life problems, must finish on a bitter note as the film to moves forward. But what should have been the most intriguing part of the story turns into a surprisingly dry and tepid re-treading of familiar themes for a film that started out boldly in its opening.

There’s jealousy, younger women involved, some weddings, and even an introduction of a new generation. The mothers officially become grandmothers. Even all this however, can’t liven up the drama or inject any passion to the narrative. It gets more and more ridiculous as the film refuses to address the uncomfortable questions in the room, instead showing us endless pretty scenes at the beach that start to have less meaning the more we visit the same thing over and over again. The fact they all remain age-defying is one of many distracting features, as well as the continued use of the aforementioned time-jumps that breaks any fluidity in the storytelling.

Much like what everyone goes through in the film, the audience may find themselves hooked and intrigued in the beginning, only to be left disappointed and empty towards the end. The actresses in particular give it their all, in playing the indecisive women of a certain age who simply try to embrace love and life for what they are, but there is simply not enough going on here to keep you interested throughout the entire film, which is a shame, given the highly unexpected, unique nature of the film’s core romance plot.