Departure

Theatre director Andrew Steggall makes a decent feature-film bow with this sincere if overly familiar tale of adolescent self-obsession and sexual confusion. Alex Lawther stars as 15-year-old Elliot, who's in southern France to help his pensive mother (Juliet Stevenson) clear out their holiday home before his father flies in to finalise the sale. That is until Elliot allows himself to become distracted by older teen Clément (Phénix Brossard), who is staying with an aunt while his mother battles cancer back in Paris. Drifting between family secrets and lustful interludes, Steggall makes evocative use of Brian Fawcett's shimmering views of the woodland and reservoir. But he overdoes the aquatic imagery, which becomes as vexing as the florid dialogue and archly measured pacing. However, despite the sketchiness of the characterisation, the performances are admirable, with Brossard drolly debunking Lawther's aesthetic affectations (he writes poetry and dresses in a vintage army tunic) in much the same way that Niamh Cusack's Irish neighbour exposes Stevenson's drama queen tendencies.