The Souvenir (2019)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Souvenir (2019) – J. Hogg

Engrossing drama which follows Julia (Honor Swinton Byrne; yes, Tilda’s daughter), an aspiring British filmmaker, who starts an unfortunate romance with a man from the Foreign Office, Anthony (Tom Burke). The film takes place in the early ‘80s, as the fashion and musical cues (not to mention typewriters) quickly alert us – it feels right to me.  Director Joanna Hogg allows herself a number of unobtrusive stylistic flourishes but mainly tells the story from Julia’s perspective in a straightforward way, notwithstanding some significant ellipses in the plot.  Although we discover Anthony’s tragic secret (from Richard Ayoade no less) along with Julia, other crucial moments happen offscreen (e.g., Julia & Anthony’s discussion of the secret and Julia’s sharing of the secret with her mum, Tilda Swinton – yes, the actor’s real mum). In many ways, this is a coming-of-age tale, even though Julia is 25 – she has approached filmmaking naively, hoping to tell a kitchen sink drama without having experienced anything but privilege herself. The souvenir that Anthony leaves her is undoubtedly her own traumatic story to tell (although at one point I worried that the souvenir might actually be something more infectious). It seems that a sequel has already been completed and I’ll look forward to it.