With a large, modern apartment tower overlooking London that is seemingly inhabited by only two people, this film aims to be disorienting from the beginning. When the main character visits his childhood home and seemingly meets his deceased parents, we’re not sure if all this is in his head or if there is a supernatural element. Eerie atmosphere aside, I loved how it perfectly addresses the question of what a person would say if given the opportunity to speak to their parents as a peer adult. There’s more to this with the gay aspect but the relationship with the parents is the best part and I’m sorry to say that the film is weakened by attempting to do any more than that.

Adam is a screenwriter who lives by himself in a modern apartment block with a commanding view of London. He is struggling with loneliness however and seems unable to write. One evening the fire alarm rings, forcing him to evacuate. But it is a false alarm and he is the only one to come out. Later a visibly drunk Harry introduces himself as the only other occupant of the building and wants to drink together. Adam nervously declines. The next day he decides to visit childhood home in the suburbs. While out in a field, he is approached by his father who invites him home. His mother is also there and both parents are happy to see him. We infer that his parents are dead as they appear to be at the same age as when Adam was twelve which was when he last saw them. Adam leaves after dinner but his parents tell him he is welcome back anytime. Back in his apartment, he is emboldened to speak to Harry, apologizing for turning him down earlier. Upon confirming that both of them are gay and single, they quickly begin a passionate relationship. Adam reveals that his parents died in a car accident when he was still a child. When Adam next meets his mother, he reveals his own homosexuality to her. She seems uncomfortable with the revelation but accepts it.

Figuring out where a mysterious film like this is going is always a fun little game. There’s a dream-like, unreal quality to Adam’s life and he always feels strangely alone even living in a city like London or on the train. I wasn’t expecting it to be about him getting to meet his deceased parents but I did like the understated way that it plays out. The encounter is so matter of fact that it takes a moment to register that the two parents actually look younger than Adam and seems stuck in time. The conversations that flow from there are exactly what any child with unresolved parental issues fantasizes about having. Even a mundane exchange like asking about what Adam does for a living and how he’s doing is so satisfying. This works so well because Adam as a child would never have the maturity and self-awareness to engage with his parents as a peer. Yet if they had lived and so aged, they would no longer be the same people that he loved and in turn were frustrated by when he was a kid. Having them frozen at just the right time so that Adam can grapple with them as an adult is what makes these scenes so powerful.

This was adapted from a Japanese novel dating from 1988 which didn’t involve the main character being gay. I do like the addition as it introduces another type of generational gulf in between Adam and his parents. It opens the door to fascinating discussions about how much things have changed in the space of a single generation. Even the end of the AIDS epidemic is huge and underappreciated. It matters that director Andrew Haigh is himself gay and so is sensitive to even subtle differences in how those who have come out to their families are treated. But I’m not a fan of developing the relationship between Adam and Harry. I’m especially disappointed in how it explicitly leans towards the supernatural when the film could have been ambiguous over whether Adam is just working out his issues in his head. This would be have been a more adult, more interesting film without turning it into another “I can see ghosts” story.

This was a film that does some things so very right. It’s just that once the conversations between Adam and his parents play out fully, there’s not much else for the film to do as there isn’t any inherent conflict in the premise. So it sets up something with Harry in hopes of it paying off later but I don’t thing it works well at all. The power of love thing is just dumb and cringe, bringing down a work that should be psychologically mature and nuanced.