Not every celebrated arthouse movie is going to be appreciated by every film fan, which is obviously part of the reason why they don't have the crossover into mainstream levels of exposure and success. Of course, the world of arthouse and/or independent cinema is where you can find some of the more interesting explorations of the human experience. That's what I was hoping to get from Hot Milk. I got something else instead.
Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw are Sofie and Rose, respectively. Rose has an illness that she can't seem to find a cure for, although that may change as she spends time in Spain to be examined by Dr. Gomez (Vincent Perez). Sofie seems a bit lost, both within herself and how she connects to a mother she views as being affected by an illness that may or may not be psychosomatic. The central relationship is defined by a lot of pushing and pulling, a mother claiming to want her daughter to be free and living fully in one breath before reminding her of just how much she relies on her in the next breath. Things obviously start to get tense.
Director Rebecca Lenkiewicz may be helming a feature for the first time here, but she has a fantastic selection of screenplays in her filmography already. Considering she also wrote this, based on the book by Deborah Levy, I was expecting something that would keep me engrossed and intrigued throughout. While that didn't happen, the very end of the film is strong enough to raise a lot of great questions and keep you thinking about things after the end credits have rolled.
Shaw is fantastic in her role, a twist on the kind of thing that she has played so many times in other movies. She seems to have been given increasingly better characters to play in recent years and I am delighted to see her effortlessly becoming such a grand dame of cinema. Mackey is equally good in her role, although a lot of her character moments are played out more internally. Perez is good in his few scenes, and Vicky Krieps plays a woman named Ingrid who ultimately doesn't create the turbulence that you might expect from her.
While there aren't films exactly like this one, which is something I will give it credit for, there are a number of films that have similar elements. And many of those films are a bit better than this. Hot Milk is a real disappointment, especially when you think of those who worked to get it made. One or two scenes pack a punch, but it needed more, and Shaw, Mackey, and Krieps deserve more. I'm interested in eventually reading the source material one day, another sign that there's definitely something worthwhile here buried under the many mis-steps and fumbles. And that ending really does make up for a lot.
5/10
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