I didn't know much about this movie before watching it other than it was filmed a few miles from where I grew up. I feel like the director/writer is going to do great things eventually but this film was lacking for me.
I found it visually stunning and each character captivated me on screen. The way the sand dunes/towans, sea and weather showed the internal struggle of Ruth was amazing to me, it's fantastic for a local of the area to see the landscape being used to highlight this to great effect, as some depictions of rural-set movies can stray into stereotype at times.
There is a wholly authentic feel to the setting, the people and the awakening Ruth eventually accepted. This is a movie that is hard to label, it does not fit some of the the genres I have seen used in its marketing.
This may be refreshing to some and it may well be used as a rather convenient reflection to Ruth's growing realisations about her desires... she may also feel she is flitting between genres herself in terms of sexuality and emotional connections.
Desperately realising she is coming out of the jigsaw of gender she thought she may belong and twisting and turning to see where her heart truly lies. At the end curtains are cast open and the sun is appearing.
The initial suffocating and disorientating mood created by the sea mists and winter downpours, the non-genre genres, and the clashing sequences of images that may be the past, present or wishful thinking could be seen as a reflection of the growing chaos within Ruth's own heart and mind.
Symbolism steals the show leaving little room for anything else. I felt I went on the journey with Ruth, but as the symbolism and metaphors are realised into action/acceptance there does not feel to be that emotional continuation of the journey as has been set up in the movie's earlier parts.
The switching genres feels more like a structural device for suggesting an inner struggle that is then discarded once the conflict is resolved leaving the latter part of the movie floundering. Before reading more about the movie I felt this was a very personal story from the director/writer and that it was actually a short movie stretched, unsuccessfully, to a feature length.
Wonderful ingredients but the story relies on structural devices and when the story no longer requires these devices it falls down for me.
I found it visually stunning and each character captivated me on screen. The way the sand dunes/towans, sea and weather showed the internal struggle of Ruth was amazing to me, it's fantastic for a local of the area to see the landscape being used to highlight this to great effect, as some depictions of rural-set movies can stray into stereotype at times.
There is a wholly authentic feel to the setting, the people and the awakening Ruth eventually accepted. This is a movie that is hard to label, it does not fit some of the the genres I have seen used in its marketing.
This may be refreshing to some and it may well be used as a rather convenient reflection to Ruth's growing realisations about her desires... she may also feel she is flitting between genres herself in terms of sexuality and emotional connections.
Desperately realising she is coming out of the jigsaw of gender she thought she may belong and twisting and turning to see where her heart truly lies. At the end curtains are cast open and the sun is appearing.
The initial suffocating and disorientating mood created by the sea mists and winter downpours, the non-genre genres, and the clashing sequences of images that may be the past, present or wishful thinking could be seen as a reflection of the growing chaos within Ruth's own heart and mind.
Symbolism steals the show leaving little room for anything else. I felt I went on the journey with Ruth, but as the symbolism and metaphors are realised into action/acceptance there does not feel to be that emotional continuation of the journey as has been set up in the movie's earlier parts.
The switching genres feels more like a structural device for suggesting an inner struggle that is then discarded once the conflict is resolved leaving the latter part of the movie floundering. Before reading more about the movie I felt this was a very personal story from the director/writer and that it was actually a short movie stretched, unsuccessfully, to a feature length.
Wonderful ingredients but the story relies on structural devices and when the story no longer requires these devices it falls down for me.