Review: Hinterland

Hinterland, Harry Macqueen set out to make a film that focussed on characters and their relationships. With no experience of his own to draw on, he looked to his own inspirations as a form of guidance, including Richard Linklater and Wim Wenders. With the completed movie making its way to cinemas and on-demand video streaming services on 27th February, he has created a minimalist road-trip movie with two fantastic central performances – and not much else unfortunately. [youtube id=”zm0a_JLKs28″] [box type="info"] • Director: Harry Macqueen • Exhibition: 2D • Rating: 15 • Run Time: 81 mins [/box] Hinterland tells the story of Harry and Lola, two childhood friends brought together again when Lola is forced to return home from her travels abroad. Deciding to take a road trip to re-acquaint themselves, they journey back to the place where they spent much of their time together and reminisce about the old days and how their lives have changed. Boiling down Hinterland to one word leaves me with ‘minimalist’ – it best describes most aspects of the film, including the plot. At 81 minutes, the movie does not outstay its welcome but still feels long. The story moves at a slow pace, with scenes often taking a few more minutes than seems necessary to play out. The characters of Lola and Harvey, played brilliantly by Lori Campbell and Harry Macqueen himself, feel natural together. With the use of improvisation and close collaboration on the script, both characters come alive on-screen. This is to their credit, as the plot simply doesn’t give them anything interesting to do. Reading Macqueen’s approach to how he shot Hinterland explains the motives behind his choices. Unfortunately, it made for a less appealing film that seemed to show its lack of budget too easily. There are a number of still shots that last too long and scenes that play out at a snail’s pace. Instead of fully engaging with the story, and despite the strong performances at the centre of the movie, my mind kept drifting behind the camera. I started asking myself whether they shot the dialogue scenes in the car at the same time with two cameras running simultaneously or if the sound was recorded on cheap microphones as some of the dialogue was being lost. There is an attempt to talk about social issues with snippets of radio talk discussing the government’s plans for the financial markets and how that is impacting the working class. It would have been welcome in a film that’s plot was failing to engage with me. However, the points seemed to be raised and left hanging there – as if simply invoking them was enough. [box type="tick"]Two strong central performances will keep you engaged[/box] [box type="alert"]The lack of budget shows in its production values[/box] [box type="alert"]The story is too bare-bones to carry the film[/box] By the time the credits had rolled on Hinterland, I was left feeling disappointed. Despite the lacklustre plot and plodding pace, I admired the two actors at the centre of it all creating two believable characters and a relationship that I had wanted to see resolved in some way. Being minimalist is not a bad thing – it can lead to stripping away everything superfluous and exposing a solid core. Hinterland’s core is simply not strong enough to sustain it. Hinterland is in cinemas and on demand 27 February [box type="info"]AR:PR provided a review screener of Hinterland[/box] [ilink url="http://www.hinterlandthefilm.com/"]Official Movie Site[/ilink]]]>