3.5 stars out of 5
Two generations of Swintons? Count me in! Tilda has a relatively small role in this, but it’s all about her daughter Honor Swinton Byrne. She plays 24-year-old Julie who wants to make films. Ah, but not about her relatively comfortable existence; she’d rather focus on a boy in the northern industrial town of Sunderland.
Julie likes discussing her ideas with Anthony (a very good Tom Burke, who I think I’ve only seen before in the 2003 British crime miniseries State of Play). He’s posh with pin-striped suits and that worldliness is part of his appeal. He’s also married but that doesn’t stop them from beginning a romance. Early on it’s rather charming but becomes less and less so, and that’s the crux of this story.
There’s an interesting subtext of identity politics here. Middle-class Julie is actually from an upper-class family, while fancy lad Anthony comes from a working-class background. (Crikey, he’s even got kin in those shipyards she fancies so much!) Meanwhile, in film school, professors insist that you have to reveal something of yourself in your art.
The film school scenes don’t quite jibe with the rest of the movie. (Beware films about filmmaking.) But overall there’s a pleasing realism here. Setting the tale in the 1980s reminds us how much more organic life was without computers and smartphones everywhere. Music is very well deployed: Images of rundown shipyards summon Robert Wyatt’s “Shipbuilding.” When Julie is falling for Anthony, we’re tipped off by Graham Maby’s iconic bassline from Joe Jackson’s “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” Later, Julie switches off stuffy Anthony’s opera and slips in a hiphop cassette.
In her debut lead role, Honor Swinton Byrne does indeed honor thy mother. She’s innocent and soft where the Tilda we usually see is knowing and angular — but they share a certain boyishness. The arc of the plot tests Julie’s pleasant demeanor, so Honor gets to test out confusion, fatigue, disappointment, and anger. Tilda steps up late in the game, exuding motherly love. It’s the role she was born to play!
At the end of the credits, we learn that The Souvenir: Part II is coming soon. Huh! I don’t think I’ve seen a dramatic sequel since the early 90s Blue/White/Red trilogy which introduced me to Juliette Binoche. I do wish Souvenir: Part I was a little stronger, but writer/director Joanna Hogg and the Swintons have hooked me enough for the next installment, provided there’s no Thanos.
Jack Silbert, curator