Written by: Joanna Hogg
Starring: Kathryn Worth, Tom Hiddleston, Mary Roscoe, David Rintoul, Emma Hiddleston
Rating: [3/5]
When in a difficult circumstance brought on by life, perhaps all one needs is a bit of a break and a getaway. A time away from one’s daily routines and surroundings allowing one to come back refreshed and ready to get right back on it. Unrelated follows a particular woman trying her best to make the most of this getaway but not exactly getting what she wants out of it as she struggles to connect with her hosts.
At a Tuscan villa, Anna (Kathryn Worth) arrives to spend time with a former classmate, Verena (Mary Roscoe) and her family. While initially meant to go on this vacation with her partner, Anna reveals she needed a break from him and sought this trip as an opportunity to get away and enjoy some time away.
Finding oneself in the place Anna does in this movie does not come with envy as she not only does not want to be near her current partner but fails to truly connect with the individuals she’s on vacation with. There’s this clear divide between the adults and the teenagers and while she firmly lands with the adults when looking at age, she finds herself gravitating towards hanging out with teens. Something quite off on the surface, but it teases at the current headspace she finds herself in within the narrative.
When hanging out with these teenagers, she puts herself in the place of being this “cool adult” who will not disclose the shenanigans they commit in an effort to find some enjoyment in this vacation. She certainly will not find it with the adults and this provides some rush she will not get anywhere else. It brings this strangeness to her that she cannot connect with the adults in a way that she would rather just hang with those much younger than her. Anna becomes fascinating to observe as audience members as in turn she observes the other members on this vacation allowing for the type of style Joanna Hogg has made famous throughout her career, even if utilized at its weakest in this film.
Hogg succeeds in utilizing this nearly voyeuristic style in the way she captures the moments of these characters. She loves placing the camera in a stagnant location and just letting the characters revolve around it and watch as they interact bringing this sense of naturalism to the way they interact. Utilizing this approach with Anna adds to the impact of the isolation she feels when she operates as a wallflower in moments taking in the moments of these vacation hosts rather than fully engaging with them. Never fully engaged but ever-present, at least physically, Hogg drives home this feeling and makes it feel all the more impactful for this character.
Unrelated serves as Hogg’s feature directorial debut and it shows her forming a style that would lead to much more impressive films later in her career. Right after this feature, she would up the ante immensely with Archipelago where the style well and truly comes alive throughout the narrative and in turn also pieces together a much more captivating story at the center of it where she focuses on the inner workings of a family. When we follow Anna, as an outsider, it makes her feel far too detached from the intriguing aspects of this feature and it comes to the detriment of the story overall even if I mostly land meagerly positive on this as a whole.
Marking her first collaboration with Tom Hiddleston, Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated comes together as something rough around the edges but still very much worth watching for any fans of her work. We get many of the trademarks we have come to love about what she brings to the table as a filmmaker in this movie. As with any directorial debut, she’s still fine-tuning her style but even then what we get in the early stages sets the table for some immaculate works she will provide not too long after. This serves as her weakest effort but still contains more than enough to take away from the narrative as it does get into this awkward space for Anna to navigate as she tries to figure out what lies next for her. It just does not fully come together in a wholly captivating manner.
Films with Josh 
