Das Liebesversteck (2014)

Das Liebesversteck: Directed by Joanna Coates. With Josh O’Connor, Hannah Arterton, Rea Mole, Daniel Metz. Four fragile young people flee London to start an unconventional utopia, creating a world of fantasy that overwhelms them.

“Oh dear! What a mess!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThereu0026#39;s little storyline to the whole thing. Four twenty somethings drop out and do the fourth way kind of gig on a country farm. Think, letu0026#39;s make a little free love commune, without all the hippy paraphernalia. Thereu0026#39;s little back story to anyone and not much exposition in general. Quite honestly director and co-writer Joanna Coates doesnu0026#39;t appear to have done the hard yards on this project at all.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLots of repetition of scenes; lying around the farm yard, pretentious little group concerts and plays (burning cardboard coffins?) and nightly musical beds. Some ex-boyfriend drops in for a bit and then leaves in a huff and it all ends up with an orgy, that drags on for a few minutes, where we donu0026#39;t see much, because itu0026#39;s filmed in such extreme close-up.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWay back in 1969 Paul Mazursky directed a (kind of) similar-themed movie called Bob u0026amp; Carol u0026amp; Ted u0026amp; Alice. I never thought it was a particularly good film, though it was a resounding critical and commercial success. It had two big things going for it that Joanna Coates has completely ignored in her making of Hide u0026amp; Seek. First it had some sort of story happening with its four main characters and second it had a sense of humour and didnu0026#39;t take itself too seriously.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe most interesting thing I can say about Hide and Seek is that Gemma Artertonu0026#39;s (one of my favourites) little sister Hannah, is one of the four u0026quot;starsu0026quot;, all of whom had very little with which to work. One of them, Daniel Metz can take a certain portion of the blame for that too, as he co-wrote the very thin script with Coates.”