Albatross (2010)

With its British setting, a quirky young female character as one of the leads altering the lives of those around her, the presence of Harry Treadaway and . . . . . the name of a bird in the title I watched Albatross at this year’s EIFF and couldn’t help think back to how much I enjoyed Pelican Blood at last year’s EIFF.
Albatross isn’t as good as that movie but it’s good and doesn’t deserve to be held up for unfair comparison so let’s now forget I said anything.

Events revolve around a family who run a small guesthouse and the effect on their lives that young, vibrant Emilia (Jessica Brown Findlay – a delight to watch) has on them.

Referring to the titular bird in the context of a heavy weight hanging around someone’s neck, everyone in this film has their own individual albatross. The father, Jonathan (Sebastian Koch) has struggled for years to recapture the magic that made his novel, The Cliff House, such a roaring success. Daughter Beth (Felicity Jones) has the family weighing on her and simply keeps studying in her free time to ensure that she can escape to university ASAP. Julia Ormond plays the frustrated mother, resentful both of her husband’s past success and the way in which she ended up leaving her acting career and putting herself, unintentionally, on the scrapheap. And then there’s the youngest of the family, quite happy to go along with things while her mother pursues her dreams vicariously through her. When Emilia enters their lives, she both highlights their respective albatrosses and makes them easier to forget. And that’s despite having her own – the surname Conan Doyle, highlighting that she is a distant relation of the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Directed by Niall MacCormick, from a screenplay by Tamzin Rafn, Albatross doesn’t really offer anything new and that’s something that makes me feel slightly hypocritical for liking it as it’s just as often something I complain about if reviewing something that didn’t draw me in. However, Albatross has a great script and great performances and pitches things just perfectly between quirky comedy and emotional drama.

It’s also one of those films where singling out one performance does an injustice to the other great actors. The focus is on Jessica Brown Findlay’s character throughout, and she’s superb, but Felicity Jones is also consistently watchable and the adults (Sebastian Koch and Julia Ormond) get plenty of time to shine. Even the youngest cast member shines in her few moments at front and centre.

The overall look of the thing is fine, though nothing leaps off the screen, and the soundtrack is pretty standard for this type of thing.

It’s a British coming of age movie that does exactly what it sets out to do and is none the worse for it. Well worth checking out.

DIRECTOR: NIALL MACCORMICK
STARS: JESSICA BROWN FINDLAY, FELICITY JONES, SEBASTIAN KOCH, JULIA ORMOND
RUNTIME: 88 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: UK

Film Rating:

Popularity: 1%