Tom Hiddleston

Lydia Leonard

Kate Fahy

Amy Lloyd

Christopher Baker

Andrew Lawson

Mike Pender

Joanna Hogg

Helle le Fevre

Luke Schiller

Sara Doughty

Stéphane Collonge

Gayle Griffiths

Lucy Bevan

Ed Rutherford

Edward Charlton

Kiyoshi Nomura

Samir Fočo

Drama

Archipelago

Wild Horse Film Company

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

We start and finish with the star of this film. The helicopter. Otherwise, this is a rather unremarkable soap of a story that sees a family reconvene on the remote Scilly Isles. You just know that when they have all arrived, familial discord will soon be in the air and although the film certainly looks lovely, the subsequent melodrama develops little substance to the characterisations and is chronically middle-class and pedestrian. Tom Hiddleston is a positive drip as "Edward" delivering his overwritten lines to his sister "Cynthia" (Lydia Leonard) who seems only capable of replying in tones of disdain and contempt. The narrative seems bent on contriving scenarios - both past and present - to force the thing and the characters to become interesting. For Joanna Hogg, it seems she is determined to bring some authenticity to this tale of wealthy people enjoying the privileges and pitfalls of their social status - good or bad! Maybe the title has a (not so) hidden meaning about those folks joined by birth but separated by constant personal maelstroms, but for me it is just far too wordy and up itself with far too much - admittedly beautiful - shots of the scenery. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood - but this just wasn't for me.

English

Archipelago -- Dir. Joanna Hogg (Official Trailer)