THE SOUVENIR – Review

Many women, early in their romantic lives, have an experience with a “bad boy,” a charming rogue who just is not good for them. THE SOUVENIR, director Joanna Hogg’s semi-autobiographical drama, presents a particularly dangerous version of that romantic experience. What really boosted this British drama into a Sundance hit, winning the Grand Jury Prize, was the breakout performance of Honor Swinton Byrne, the daughter of Tilda Swinton (who also appears in the film) and her ex, Scottish playwright and artist John Byrne.

Honor Swinton Byrne plays Julie, a shy, ambitious British film student. Julie is from a wealthy, aristocratic family and has led a very sheltered and privileged life. Living in a London apartment in upscale Knightsbridge, she is struggling to establish her own adult identity and to fit in with the other students at her film school, she is still emotionally and financially dependent on her protective but flinty mother (Tilda Swinton). When Julie meets the charming, slightly older Anthony (Tom Burke) at a party, she is quietly dazzled. Cultured, entertaining and handsome Anthony has an Oxford accent, and he talks of his work in the Foreign Office and his love of art and film, as he heaps attention on shy Julie when he takes her to lunch at a marble-columned restaurant. There is something about his off-kilter dry humor and seeming sincerity that connects with her, and he is intellectual, charming and world-weary in a way that is hypnotic to sheltered Julie. Julie thinks of herself as “ordinary” but Anthony insists she isn’t, which makes him intoxicating for her.

While Anthony comes from a nice upper-middle class family, although not as rich as her aristocratic one, he has secrets – dark secrets the smitten Julie does not really want to see. Anthony’s posh manner and flattering attention disarms her but Julie is strikingly naive. When she notices an injection mark on his arm, she does not realize its meaning. Anthony is so confident in her affection that he does not bother to explain it. When at a party with some of Anthony’s friends, one of them lets slip about Anthony’s heroin addiction when he is out of the room. Julie blinks uncomprehendingly like a deer in the headlights and still does not process what that means about her new boyfriend.

This isn’t just a tale of first love, but a particularly painful and dangerous version of it. Julie’s capacity for self-delusion and her inexperience with life prove a sinister combination. Her capacity for self-delusion makes her puzzling, but Byrne’s remarkably vulnerable, accessible performance allows us to connect with her on her troubling, dangerous journey.

The film has a naturalness to it but it takes its time in getting underway. While it is set in the early 1980s, the time period is hard to figure out at first. We know it is not the present from the absence of cell phones and computers but the collection of props, settings and casting suggest anywhere from the late ’60s to the ’80s. A couple of scenes finally clarify the time period.

Anthony is brilliantly played by Tom Burke, who peels back Anthony’s layers of complexity. It is not that Anthony means Julie harm but he is in the grips of his demon. One moment he is charming and funny, encouraging her ambitions as a filmmaker and praising her talents, and the next he is moody and deceitful, asking for money and worse. Burke and Byrne take us step-wise down this dangerous path, as Anthony’s deceits and addiction threatens to destroy them both.

Anthony is as much a victim of his demons as anyone around him, and of his own pride and inability to admit his situation, while Julie’s capacity for self-delusion puts her at risk of losing her future and perhaps still-forming herself. It makes for an intriguing look at toxic relationships and the power of addiction, romantic or drug-related.

The film’s ability to humanize both these characters and draw us into their lives is it strength. Director Joanna Hogg is less well-known here than in Britain and Europe. where she is regarded as a rising auteur. Her previous films UNRELATED, ARCHIPELAGO and EXHIBITION were critically acclaimed. THE SOUVENIR, which was produced by Martin Scorsese, is a more personal film than the previous ones, drawing on Hogg’s days as a film student trying to find her way as an artist and as an adult, and partly on various early romantic experiences.

Photography by David Raedeker adds immensely to the film. The visual style is realist yet lyrical. As one expects for a story about a student, much of the action takes place in Julie’s apartment, including the party where she first meets Anthony, and at the school where she is studying film-making. But scenes also take place in spaces that define how Julie thinks of Anthony, the stately marble-columned restaurant where they dine, the art museum that is his favorite place. We also meet both parents and see the contrast between his parents’ nice, comfortable upper middle class home and the aristocratic country estate where Julie’s mother lives. While Raedeker and Hogg alternate tightly-framed shots that promote an intimate connection to Julie with long shots that suggest a sense of larger forces at work, the visual style depart from its realist tone during a trip the couple takes to Venice. Shot on location, the Venice interlude allows the photography to become lush and romantic, suggesting a fantasy element. Still, the bubble bursts inevitably and Hogg brings us back to reality in a starker emotional scene between Julie and Anthony in their half-lit hotel room.

THE SOUVENIR is not a film for every audience but it is one sure to speak to those who relish well-crafted, well-acted and thought-provoking art house drama. The film takes some focus and concentration, which Sundance audiences are willing to give but not all general release audiences will. Although the story seems very complete and resolved by its end, the end credits announce a “Part II,” which seems unnecessary.

For those who enjoy a well-thought out personal drama with fine acting, THE SOUVENIR has much to offer. It opens Friday, May 31, at Landmark’s Tivoli and Plaza Frontenac theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars