WHAT I LIKED: Joanna Hogg's 'The Souvenir,' slowly paints the portrait of a young film student called Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) being manipulated and abused by a smarmy toff called Anthony (Tom Burke).
The painting is slow because the script is filled exclusively with naturalistic conversations and moments which expose very little, so, for example, when Julie first meets the standoffish Anthony in a palatial restaurant, it's not clear whether the pair are on a date or in some kind of academic meeting. As he makes his way back to her flat and starts visiting regularly, you realise weird romance is building between the pair, but you also begin to see that Julie is won over simply because someone who seems vaguely intelligent and respected is actually talking about her and her work somewhat seriously.
He never does so without belittling her or making her feel small though, and as he spends an increasing amount of time there, we also start to see things that make us question everything about him. He has bruises on his arms, he's constantly sneaking out and borrowing money, and eventually it's revealed that he's a heroin addict, so even his supposed job in the foreign office is thrown into doubt. Julie's Mum (Honor's real Mum Tilda Swinton) seems to quietly suspect things, but Julie is always the last to catch on, and it's only by the half way mark that the audience are really given enough information to build a proper picture of Julie's naivety and Anthony's abuse and manipulation.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It has to be said that once that picture is painted, you spend the rest of the film just longing for Julie to find some self worth and lose the naivety, or for Anthony to meet some kind of sticky end. She dotes and fawns over him no matter how many times he gaslights and takes advantage of her, and we're just forced to sit watch the same emotional abuse over and over whilst Anthony spirals into addiction. That gets pretty exasperating pretty quickly, and the fact it's interspersed with pretentious poems and their shallow conversations about the meaning of art left me rolling my eyes.
VERDICT: Once Joanna Hogg's 'The Souvenir,' has slowly painted its very real and well-executed portrait of emotional abuse, it soon becomes incredibly repetitive and frustrating to watch.
