bakergeo This movie is an utter mess and pretty much one giant long awkward silence. The most boring thing I've ever seen, unless you're particularly entertained by one woman losing her mind over undercooked meat, a family being unable to decide where to sit in a restaurant, or some guy talking about how the height of his life's excitement is going to Africa to teach people about safe sex. The whole movie is a compilation of awkward moments and conversations you dread in your everyday life. Also, what even happened in this movie? I feel bad for the chef lady because I don't feel like she knows either. She's constantly being forced into awkward conversations and pulling random backstory out of her butt. Why did this movie happen.

rabbitfish63 This is a maddening movie, though a good one. The structure is just about perfect, and the family's dysfunction unspools in a very controlled way. The acting is universally excellent and clear. The movie makes wonderful use of the unique landscape of the Isle of Scilly, and all in all, I felt I was in the hands of first class creators.But…The rhythm is eternally and unchangingly slow. Every scene begins with long, long minutes of barely discernible action. There is, despite the simmering resentments, only a single explosion. This lugubrious technique is both effective and maddening. The movie seems like an experiment in just how far you can go into hazy somnambulance and still create dramatic tension.Don't watch it when you're sleepy.

Emilia Tokes If you have no expectation upon watching a movie, you are free to be impressed, touched or left blank of impression.This is a straight forward movie wrapped in the simplicity of real life depicted with brilliant realism. No fancy above the common mortal sort of thing. The dialogue is refreshing in it's simplicity, the interactions between the characters are what most every common family could relate to; criticism, estrangement as one grows older and becomes their own self, versus the memory of what others had of him/her.Actress Lydia Leonard is particularly vibrant in the interpretation of her role and one could only feel sympathy for Tom Hiddleston's most natural Edward as he tries to be nice to everyone while remaining true to himself. The mother, soft and shy Kate Fahy inspires the greater amount of sympathy as she tries to build bridges between the various characters. Amy Lloyd in the role of the cook Rose brings a bit of sunlight in the otherwise "bleak" and cold windy atmosphere, which I have to underline is brilliantly captured, especially through the eyes of Christopher Baker and as he interprets reality around him.

Tweekums Before Edward departs for eleven months of volunteer work in Africa his family decide to get together for a family holiday on the island of Tresco in the off season. Here Edward, his sister Cynthia and his mother Patricia are joined by Rose the cook and art teacher Christopher. It quickly becomes apparent that there are family tensions; Cynthia clearly doesn't agree with her brother's decision to go to Africa thinking he should get a real job and there father never turns up despite talking to the phone to Patricia more than once. We follow them through their holiday; watching them go for a picnic, go out for a meal at the hotel and sit and talk... or sometimes just sit. As time passes tempers fray but never so much that we think it may have a lasting effect on the characters. Then they leave.Having enjoyed many visits to the Isles of Scilly over the years I really wanted to enjoy this; the problem was it felt a little too real; as though we were just being shown a group of fairly unsympathetic characters having a miserable time on holiday. There were long pauses and conversations about things of little consequence; realistic perhaps but sadly not that interesting. Strangely the family seemed to have almost no interaction with anybody but each other, Rose and Christopher; we see Rose chatting to a couple of locals when she acquires some lobsters and pheasants for dinner but apart from that the island seems strangely deserted... even when they go out for dinner the restaurant is deserted apart from the staff... if it hadn't been for the fact that we see them leave at the end I might have thought it was all a metaphor for purgatory! I can't really fault the actors as I did believe in the characters; even if this meant I disliked many of them! I might not have found this hilarious but I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh at all.While this clearly wasn't the film for me I certainly wouldn't recommend avoiding it all together; the large number of '10' reviews suggests quite a few people love it; perhaps I was just missing something and you will love it too.