German actor Aylin Tezel writes, directs and stars in this strident, fervent, oddly unreal romantic drama set in London and Skye; it is like the world’s longest TV banking ad without the humour that something like this needs. Yet for all its faults it’s an honest, flawed attempt to show how complicated it is to meet someone in your 30s who may be The One when both of you already have entanglements or relationships or ex-relationships.
It looks like a very personal work from Tezel, with moments that could be taken from real life. Chris Fulton plays Ian, a guy who has come back to his home town in Skye for difficult family reasons, and in the pub he meets-cute, or meets-intense, with German set-designer Kira, played by Tezel. They have a magical night where they stay up all night talking, but then have to part, both back to London where they pursue their separate imperfect lives, naturally excited and confused and saddened about what just happened and leaving us to wonder if they will find their way back to each other by the final credits.
The parts in this film which are supposed to be joyous and life-affirming and adorable – Ian and Kira come close to dancing on the table over breakfast after their all-night talk – are pretty insufferable. There’s a moment in Anthony Minghella’s Truly, Madly, Deeply when Juliet Stevenson and Michael Maloney, to break the ice on their date, talk while hopping along in the street, and comedian Nick Hancock notably said that while watching this he realised he had more in common with any of the aliens in Star Trek than these people. It is how I felt some of the time watching this, as the dialogue switches from rom-dram loveliness to jarringly, unconvincingly acted scenes of shouty confrontation. It doesn’t, in fact, quite fall into place.
• Falling into Place is in UK cinemas from 6 June.
