London River (Rachid Bouchareb, 2009): UK/ France/ Algeria

Reviewed by Tamara Mamukelashvili. Viewed in Hollywood, CA at Mann Chinese theater as part of the AFI film festival 2009.

I had very high expectation for London River. It  will be fair to say I ruined it for myself. I thought  it would actually have action sequences, but it  didn’t. I can’t say I was disappointed. I wasn’t. I  actually very much enjoyed the film.

in this film Mise-en-scene played a big part.  visually director gave audience a feeling of  loneliness of the two main characters. by have  them wearing the same clothes through out the  movie, by camera movements, very close up shots,  made it feel very trapped the way the characters felt.

the movie itself was developing very slow, it didn’t really have expectations for audience. I never got question what might’ve happen next. It was kind of the movie, that ending was easy to guess. And i think most of the people got the same feeling. which doesn’t make it a bad film whatsoever.

Thinking about it more, it wasn’t really about the ending. the film is about terrorism in London, and and mother of the one student and father of the other student looking for them. They run into each other many times. The woman doesn’t trust him, and feels very awkward around him. But as film developes so are the characters.

Personally I think this movie is about 2 different people, different believes and different race coming together. being united by a tragic. Going through things together and supporting each other. I thought the idea of this was very well explained, very well delivered to the audience.

Some people thought it was Slow phase, and i have to say I did get that feeling too. the film itself wasn’t made for entertaining the audience. it just said a story about 2 people struggling and fighting for something important, their family.