7/10
elderly couple navigate mid-life crisis
3 July 2017
"You drank Ian!" Best line of the film, delivered by Eve (Tilda).

There should have been more of this light-hearted irony, especially from Tom Hiddleston who takes his part (Adam) a touch too seriously. Result: he comes across as lugubrious. And he plays on a note of such desperate ennui that Tilda comes across as positively incandescent by contrast. She's the mother of the family, the fixer, the one who gets people up in the evening. She's very watchable.

But points for John Hurt as Christopher Marlowe (it was me, you know, not that Shakespeare!). And for Mia W. playing every family's nightmare, the teenage girl who can't say no.

Given the fact it wasn't shot on film one can forgive the murkiness of the picture but I don't think Jim Jarmusch has much of an eye for setting up shots. There's not much flow. Some awkward cuts. And so on.

Lots of wealthy addicts cope with their addiction provided they have access to quality drugs - Jean Cocteau being a classic example. The plot here hinges on how that supply can be so easily blocked, the panic and despair that ensues and the inevitable descent into violence. Moralistic? Maybe.
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