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Following up her much-lauded 2013 film Exhibition, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg returns to the silver screen with the hotly-anticipated The Souvenir – a personal tale about a young filmmaker in the 80s dealing with the difficulties of film school and naivety of first love.
An autobiographical account of Hogg’s life, our eyes into her world are that of the naive Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne); she’s in film school, desperate to get her own feature film off the ground – pitching her ideas to any willing ear, though constantly doubting her abilities as a filmmaker. When she meets the suave Anthony (Tom Burke), the pair quickly fall in love. But, the longer their relationship goes on, the more complications arise between them – with Jack proving to be more difficult a man than initially anticipated – that test Julie’s strength, loyalty and individuality.
The Souvenir starts out promising; it sets up what seems like a fascinating premise and the film offers a very low-key, almost understated approach early on. The cinematography is also excellent; David Raedeker lenses the piece with an old-school, nostalgic tinge to it. The shots are intimate and the use of colours adds to the film’s attractive extravagance. The first act is fairly strong; it sets up a myriad of subplots and there’s a freewheeling nature to it as we watch Julie stumble through film school, family and first love – capably acted by Honor, following well in her mother’s steps (Tilda Swinton, funnily enough, appearing in a cameo role, as Julie’s mother).
Related: The Souvenir trailer
But the film starts to trip up in its middle act, tumbling down rapidly towards a bitterly disappointing and dull finale that struggles horribly with pacing and never seems to end – edging towards finality before picking back up. The film clearly comes from a very personal place for Hogg; it’s indicative of her own experiences in life. The way she has structured this story is very much reflective of this; the thing is, the screenplay is so fragmented and rushed that it feels too scatterbrain and aimless for its own good. There’s not much of a narrative, despite the film setting things up that seem as though they’re going to develop and pay off later in the film – but do not. What little story the screenplay does offer (the toxic relationship between Julie and Anthony) doesn’t work beyond the first act because it just gets repetitive; we understand there’s an innocuity to Julie’s first love but it’s hard to keep rooting for her when she’s repeating the same mistakes over and over again despite full well seeing the signs and acknowledging the toxicity.
Hogg is pouring her own experience into her work which is admirable but considering she’s writing and directing, with an autobiographical approach, it comes off as self-aggrandising and a little self-indulgent – there’s a lot of tooting her own horn through conversations about the most mundane of subjects that are supposed to come off as meaningful and thoughtful but feel tactless and pretentious in the end. It’s 2 hours of trying to show this character’s worth, despite her seemingly never overcoming the obstacles whilst aware of their presence; it is melodramatic and feels quite unsubstantial in many regards. The chemistry between the leads is so unromantic too; it’s almost difficult to believe their friendship, let alone they’re in love with one another. The Souvenir boasts some interesting ideas at the centre of it; it’s ambitious, trying to depict a 1980s that is both fragile and affirmative, with a protagonist equally as such, and commentate on art and love through experience and the medium of the film. Whilst the film has flashes of brilliance, it’s ultimately too decadent, monotonous and hollow for its own good.
The Souvenir was reviewed at EIFF 2019.
