The Hour of Living (2012)

The Hour of Living: Directed by Sebastian Michael, Adam Berzsenyi Bellaagh. With Sam Fordham, Sebastian Michael, Charlotte Heinimann, Christoph Schwegler. Theo goes looking for someone who can tell him about his dad and the person he loved. His quest leads him into the Alps, where George has been living as a recluse for ten years. As they meet, the two men start to make sense of their lives.

“Iu0026#39;d have to start by saying that if Sam Fordham were not quite so cute, I may well have given up on this slightly meandering and disjointed tale early on. As it is, he is, so I stuck with it – and I am sort of glad I did. Fordham is u0026quot;Theou0026quot; – a young man whose father committed suicide almost ten years earlier. He has long wanted to establish why he did this, and so embarks on a search to track down the one man who might have some answers – a journey that takes him high into the remote Swiss Alps where he meets u0026quot;Georgeu0026quot; (auteur Sebastian Michael) where the two men start to make sense of it all. At times, the monochrome style helps give it some edge, but the characters have no depth, the dialogue vacillates badly in intensity – with some rather weak attempts at humour from time to time – and whilst there is also some sexual ambiguity, itu0026#39;s all just too underplayed. It is frequently interspersed/interrupted by a sort of depressing Celtic minstrel – Pepe Belmonte – and that robs the story of any head of steam the rather dull writing might have given it. It may well have worked better as a short(er) film; but this is strung out with too little in the way of drama to keep it interesting for almost two hours with far too much arty establishing and development photography that, though beautiful at times, becomes wearisome.”