Francis Lee didn’t need to insist this played in person during the festival circuit this year, after its showing in TIFF, and its mediocre response, the buzz pretty much died down, and it could have totally done a simultaneous PVOD and theatrical, but I don’t know.

It’s funny, because despite my brain not wanting to draw comparisons at all, and think of it as it’s own thing, especially considering it’s from the same distributor, this feels like the slight English Language Portrait, just because it hits so many of its narrative beats. I was in it the entire time, enjoying the slow, quiet, and wordless introspection, but when I left the theater, I felt nothing. No emotional response, with a lot of it due to the ending just not working for me at all, though it’s one that will seemingly split audiences down the middle. I get why it happened, but did it have to happen, since this is a fictionalized take on reality?

Winslet and Espically Ronan are soooo good, but a lot of the scenes of them, despite enjoying them, didn’t really add to character, feeling more like filler then anything else.

Really disappointed, but I’ve been preparing for said disappointment. It’s only a bit more then the English Protrait I expected, with not enough to set it apart, besides the importance of Male characters in the film, from the other.