This film seems pedestrian at first and for a long while into the story. Rather slow and mundane, it requires patience to allow yourself to settle into what might seem laboured and boring in that it's a rather simplistic story about a father and daughter doing the routine stuff we've all done on a package holiday. I'm not surprised some find it odd that the praise is so high for this film and for the acting because there isn't much overt straining of the acting chops here and nothing is addressed directly. I was sceptical until the last 40 mins or so. However, I realised that it is a film which exploits the art of storytelling from that place of reticence we all feel at times, when it's just too overwhelming to say how we're feeling and as a study in depression and regret it turns out to be very poignant and real in the end. Many have said they need to see it again to fully grasp the nuance here but I find that I will remember it for a good while and that is testament to the story and it's accomplished acting and direction, albeit very slight, almost whispers on a hot breeze. So, I'll set out how I understood it here, don't read on if you haven't seen it.
His self loathing is revealed when he--mid normal conversation--spits at his own face in the bathroom mirror while maintaining a pretence at normality - talking to his daughter beyond the bathroom door. It was perhaps the first outright confirmation that he was depressed, full of a lack of self-worth and steeped in self beratment - actions which often accompany depression.
Earlier, there were signs as he danced in silence on the balcony while smoking that his mental health wasn't great because it was off-kilter, an inappropriate moment to dance in silence, and to dance oddly as if self-comforting, nearly talking to himself, but not quite.
The dim strobing scenes of dancing with Sophie as an adult flash glimpses of what she can now see, as an adult and mother, what she couldn't see then, a very serious and somewhat unhinged man, the reality of his state of mind she failed to see as a child. This is contrasted very well with the fond memories of her last holiday with him and there is one moment she recalls when he failed to wake and let her into their shared room, she was locked out, perhaps metaphorically and emotionally but gained access and found him naked on the bed. Perhaps this particular memory is her only clue as to his odd behavior that she recalls, but she sees him here vulnerable at last, perhaps clearly, and she pulls the sheet over his body as if to comfort and protect him while she keeps watch from the balcony.
I found the place of his death unclear although I don't think we're meant to know exactly, some believe he stayed in Turkey, however I thought he handed her over at the airport in London (there was a sign marked London Luton) to a Chaperone. There is a non-contemporaneous shot earlier where he walks into the sea at night in Turkey, a clear signal as to his intentions, or perhaps the past when he committed suicide, just not maybe the exact place. This is confusing but doesn't change the sense of loss in this film.
There is a palpable feeling of regret and he exhibits lingering love still for his daughter's mother and there's a sense that this is one-sided as alluded to by the daughter. Why say you love her if you're no longer together? There is also the picture of a man who hasn't been able to cope in the world and to succeed, as happens more than we care to dwell on ... the pressure on men to succeed and provide contributing to high rates of suicide in men. This is confirmed when his daughter berates him for offering to pay for singing lessons when she knows he can't pay for them. His shame is evident here.
It's easy to just see this film as a mundane telling of a father & daughter on a typical holiday, however if you grasp his inner turmoil from the outset, that knowledge transforms the experience and culminates in a formidable and profoundly sad story of regret and trauma as a daughter, too young at the time to see the subtleties of depression in the man who was the father she loved so much, looking back and suffering, living with the loss and angst so many feel about not noticing that a loved-one was at that awful stage of being about to take their own life, but they didn't notice. There's huge guilt left behind as a consequence.
In the end, this film is real cinema and reminds me very much of French cinema. It is accomplished and it is profoundly sad and moving.
His self loathing is revealed when he--mid normal conversation--spits at his own face in the bathroom mirror while maintaining a pretence at normality - talking to his daughter beyond the bathroom door. It was perhaps the first outright confirmation that he was depressed, full of a lack of self-worth and steeped in self beratment - actions which often accompany depression.
Earlier, there were signs as he danced in silence on the balcony while smoking that his mental health wasn't great because it was off-kilter, an inappropriate moment to dance in silence, and to dance oddly as if self-comforting, nearly talking to himself, but not quite.
The dim strobing scenes of dancing with Sophie as an adult flash glimpses of what she can now see, as an adult and mother, what she couldn't see then, a very serious and somewhat unhinged man, the reality of his state of mind she failed to see as a child. This is contrasted very well with the fond memories of her last holiday with him and there is one moment she recalls when he failed to wake and let her into their shared room, she was locked out, perhaps metaphorically and emotionally but gained access and found him naked on the bed. Perhaps this particular memory is her only clue as to his odd behavior that she recalls, but she sees him here vulnerable at last, perhaps clearly, and she pulls the sheet over his body as if to comfort and protect him while she keeps watch from the balcony.
I found the place of his death unclear although I don't think we're meant to know exactly, some believe he stayed in Turkey, however I thought he handed her over at the airport in London (there was a sign marked London Luton) to a Chaperone. There is a non-contemporaneous shot earlier where he walks into the sea at night in Turkey, a clear signal as to his intentions, or perhaps the past when he committed suicide, just not maybe the exact place. This is confusing but doesn't change the sense of loss in this film.
There is a palpable feeling of regret and he exhibits lingering love still for his daughter's mother and there's a sense that this is one-sided as alluded to by the daughter. Why say you love her if you're no longer together? There is also the picture of a man who hasn't been able to cope in the world and to succeed, as happens more than we care to dwell on ... the pressure on men to succeed and provide contributing to high rates of suicide in men. This is confirmed when his daughter berates him for offering to pay for singing lessons when she knows he can't pay for them. His shame is evident here.
It's easy to just see this film as a mundane telling of a father & daughter on a typical holiday, however if you grasp his inner turmoil from the outset, that knowledge transforms the experience and culminates in a formidable and profoundly sad story of regret and trauma as a daughter, too young at the time to see the subtleties of depression in the man who was the father she loved so much, looking back and suffering, living with the loss and angst so many feel about not noticing that a loved-one was at that awful stage of being about to take their own life, but they didn't notice. There's huge guilt left behind as a consequence.
In the end, this film is real cinema and reminds me very much of French cinema. It is accomplished and it is profoundly sad and moving.