Prolific British film-maker Jamie Adams got me hooked with his 2015 comedy Black Mountain Poets, a laid-back improv-realist caper with Alice Lowe and Dolly Wells – but then he sort of got me unhooked with his Wild Honey Pie! a few years later, a pretty indulgent and directionless film. And now I have to say I am defeated and disappointed by his latest flimsy creation, another let’s-make-up-the-film-right-here exercise which looks as if it was shot under lockdown/bubble conditions, arbitrarily, and frankly uninterestingly, marooned in a single location: a Cornish boutique hotel.
The air of sheepish pointlessness becomes pretty wearing after a while, despite the undoubted quality of his lead actors. As so often, Adams assembles a classy transatlantic cast: Sam Riley plays Idris, a former pop star whose career has stalled; he is now living with a younger partner, Louise (Marisa Abela) who appears to own or manage the hotel where they both live, but – rather bafflingly – Louise’s real vocation appears to be acting. She is fanatically running her lines for a tricky upcoming audition callback. So what’s with the hotel? Was she left it in someone’s will?
