Holiday Review: Masochistic and visually confronting, Isabella Eklöf’s gangster moll tale is 88-minutes of unfulfilled potential.
Holiday film reviewed by Awais Irfan.
Holiday Review
The warm beaches and lively Summer atmosphere make director Isabella Eklöf’s debut Holiday one that seems inviting, a trip that’s hard to refuse. But, beneath the surface, this is as cold and stark a tale of abuse and torment as they come.
The film follows the young and joyful Sascha (Victoria Carmen Sonne) as she finds herself abused everywhere she turns; when on Holiday in Turkey with her crime-boss boyfriend Michael (Lai Yde), acting as his arm candy and show-piece, Sascha finds herself entranced by the kind and gentle Thomas (Thijs Romer). Out of loneliness, despair and perhaps the fact it’s an escape from the cruelty of Michael, she flirts with Thomas and strikes up a fling of sorts with the traveller. But when the innocuity of this love triangle begins to fade, it results in some everything coming to a head in the most brutal of ways.
Right from the off, it’s made clear that Sascha is no stranger to abuse – receiving a handful of less than gentle strikes across the face when her spending of Michael’s money goes too out of hand in the opening few minutes. From there, we see her beaten and strangled and raped in one of the most harrowing, uncomfortable and graphic scenes of sexual abuse ever put to film. This is a character that endures quite the stretch of emotional torment and puts up with it. It should set the forthcoming story up quite nicely for a thrilling, gripping collision of emotion, anguish and violence. But Holiday is anything but; sure enough, it is a collision of emotion, anguish and violence… but not until the last 5/10 minutes. Up until that point, the film slogs at a painfully lackadais pace; with a taut runtime of 88-minutes, this should feel a lot quicker than it does. But, the truth of the matter is that nothing happens!!!
Holiday Review
We get a whole lot of characters doing nothing and, whilst it could make for interesting viewing, watching Sascha simmer in her surroundings despite everything we know to happen to her, she remains a very dull and lacklustre character. In fact, all of the characters remain fairly one-dimensional. It means that we don’t care for what’s happening and it leaves most of Holiday remaining emotionally hollow. The writing feels mawkish and the narrative sets up a fair few arcs but never follows through with them which can be quite frustrating given the potential the material has and given Eklöf’s unarguable talent behind the camera. It’s a stunningly made film, the cinematography is sumptuous and sun-soaked Turkey is quite the treat on the eyes; the way Eklöf frames and blocks her shots and creates an almost hypnotic ebb and flow between them all is very much evidence of her deft skill and talents.
But Holiday remains nothing more than unfulfilled potential. It’s gorgeous and slickly crafted on the surface but remains a very vacant and hollow piece beneath the visuals. Carmen Sonne gives a fine performance, as do the supporting cast, but the characters feel too thin and unexplored to make them all that memorable. The film does finally come to a head in a very satisfying way but that’s not until the last few minutes and even that feels rushed, despite how entertaining the violence and catharsis may be. If anything, Holiday remains a debut that doesn’t quite scratch the surface enough. Eklöf shows promise of quite a great visual and intrusive director (comparisons to the likes of Gaspar Noe and Winding Refn are almost a given) but Holiday just lacks the bite it needed.
Holiday review by Awais Irfan, June 2018.
Holiday was reviewed at the 2018 Sydney Film Festival.
