Welcome to another Double Reviews edition! This time it’s a pair of European films, one set in one of the Canary Islands and the other in Ireland.
ISLANDS
Sam Riley is one of my favorite actors, who I think is criminally underrated. I’m thrilled whenever I see him as a leading man, and he’s terrific here as Tom, a tennis coach at a hotel for sun lovers in the Canary Islands. We first catch a glimpse of him waking up in a desert, shaking off the sand, and heading to his car. Tom’s life mainly consists of giving tennis lessons during the day and partying at night, with some flings with hotel guests thrown in. You might think that living in a vacation destination where people come to relax is a dream come true, but it turns out Tom lives a pretty lonely life.
As the metaphorical opening suggests, it’s a sign of Tom’s awakening when a young family shows up on the island: Dave (Jack Farthing), his wife Anne (Stacy Martin), and their 7-year-old son Anton (Dylan Torrell). Anne approaches Tom for a private lesson for Anton, and before long, Tom becomes friends with the family and shows them around the island. The film hints that Tom recognizes Anne, but she attributes it to a TV show she was in. There’s some tension between Dave and Anne, suggesting their marriage is on shaky ground, which makes things a bit uncomfortable for Tom.
Then, out of the blue, Dave goes missing, pulling Tom closer to Anne during the search. You can’t shake the feeling that something is off about Dave’s disappearance and Anne’s response, but a crucial conversation from the night before Tom and Dave hit the clubs might hold a clue. I won’t give it away, but Tom’s bond with young Anton also provides hints about what’s really happening.
Riley is always engaging as you look for clues in his interactions with the enigmatic and alluring Anne. It’s great to see Riley in almost every scene, and he really makes you feel for Tom, who’s clearly feeling lost and disillusioned. It’s fascinating to listen to Riley speak Spanish in this multilingual film. I know he speaks German (as he’s married to German actress Alexandra Maria Lara, whom he met in his breakout film Control), but he must’ve learned Spanish for this film.
I also enjoy the supporting cast, especially the local cop, Jorge (Pep Ambròs), and the warm-hearted Moroccan couple Raik and Amina (Ahmed Boulane and Fatima Adoum) who run a nearby camel farm. Raik’s tale about Tom playing tennis with Rafael Nadal is funny but also sheds light on Tom’s past, which he’s reluctant to discuss.
This is German director Jan-Ole Gerster’s third film; I’ve only seen his 2012 movie A Coffee in Berlin (Oh Boy) years ago. He co-wrote the script for Islands with Lawrie Doran and Blaz Kutin. Marketed as a psychological thriller, I feel it leans more towards a mystery drama that gradually unfolds with a measured pace. I appreciate that Gerster doesn’t spoon-feed viewers with excessive details or unnecessary flashbacks. I do think the movie feels overlong at 2 hours, and the editing could have been a bit sharper overall.
It’s a film that might seem uneventful at first, yet it stays with you long after the credits roll. The title might seem strange initially, but as I watched, it reminded me of the phrase ‘no man is an island,’ as Tom attempts to build his own little ‘island,’ striving for complete self-sufficiency and keeping his distance from others. However, as human beings, we are all fundamentally interconnected, and isolation can be harmful to our well-being.
Shot in picturesque Fuerteventura, the cinematography is stunning, and the movie highlights the local community wonderfully. The sense of ambiguity can be intriguing and frustrating in equal measure. Underneath the bright, sunlit scenes and the slow tempo, there’s a tension reminiscent of noir, suggesting that there’s always more than what appears on the surface.
THE SPIN
I love movies about music, and the Irish scenery sounds appealing; that’s the main draw for me to see The Spin.
The title is a clever play on words, obviously referring to ‘spinning records’ and that these two unlikely friends are spinning their wheels trying to save their record store from closure. Brenock and Elvis, the music-loving duo, are given just two days by their ruthless landlord, Sadie (Tara Lynne O’Neill), after falling four months behind on rent. They come across a box of invaluable records online and decide to journey across Ireland, from Omagh to Cork, hoping those records will provide the cash they need to save their store.
It’s a promising premise if it had a charming cast to really bring the story to life. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. I hadn’t seen Brenock O’Connor and Owen Colgan before this film. They start off cute, but their endless back-and-forth quickly becomes exhausting, and the movie doesn’t pick up the pace soon enough. It’s distributed by Tull Stories, which often features quirky feel-good comedies like Oh My Goodness! that I reviewed last year. I genuinely want to like this movie, but it falls short on the laughs needed for a roadtrip comedy.
There are eclectic mix of characters along the way, but honestly, none really make an impression except maybe the Irish nun who briefly joins the guys in their beat-up car. For the most part, I don’t find Dermot and Elvis to be particularly funny or likable as characters who are down on their luck. Also, the movie totally misses the opportunity to play up the fact that one of the Irish guys is named Elvis; it just feels random to me. Overall, the music isn’t all that memorable either, which is kind of ironic since it’s a movie about music. Maybe viewers who know more about the Irish musicians in this film might appreciate it more.
Directed by Michael Head from a script by Colin Broderick and Mark McCausland, the plot feels too thin to fill 90 minutes and tends to wander quite a bit. It might have been more effective as a short film, but if it were to be expanded into a full-length feature, it would be more enjoyable with a more engaging cast. Maybe Domhnall Gleeson and Barry Keoghan could shine as an unexpected pair, with their chemistry being the main attraction. The highlight of the film is definitely the stunning Irish landscapes, but beautiful scenery alone can’t rescue a film.
The Spin has a lot of potential for a life-affirming roadtrip comedy that celebrates friendship. The finale involving Elvis’ unlikely ally, his ex-wife’s new husband, does fit the feel-good theme; if only the overall journey had been as fulfilling.
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