First Hit: Languid look at a family gathered to process a life-altering event.
During a day in Sintra, Portugal, Francois Cremont, AKA “Frankie” (Isabelle Huppert) has asked family and friends to gather to spend time together. Frankie is a famous actress and tries to keep a low profile while at this famous picturesque town. She walks with her husband, Jimmy (Brendan Gleeson), and a guide who says at one point, there are miracle healing waters in an undisclosed place near the hotel. You can tell by the way she looks, she’s not well.
Frankie’s invited her son Paul (Jeremie Renier) and close friend Irene (Marisa Tomei), hoping to make a love connection between them. However, Irene has brought her boyfriend Gary (Greg Kinnear) as they were both working on a “Star Wars” film in nearby Spain. Gary springs his plans to ask Irene to make their relationship more permanent by moving in together. He gives her a ring as a token of his intentions. Irene hesitates.
The closeness of Irene and Frankie is wonderfully portrayed during their long walk together and then the ride back to the hotel in a small open-air taxi. It’s a sweet and revealing moment.
Gary, sad at being shunned by Irene, runs into Frankie and learns from her that if Irene didn’t come right out and say yes to his proposal that they live together, it’s probably something she doesn’t want to do. Then Gary shifts and asks if Frankie would be interested in a script he’s thinking of turning into a film.
Sylvia and Ian Andoh (Vinette Robinson and Ariyon Bakare) are also at the hotel with their daughter Maya (Sennia Nanua). Sylvia and Ian’s marriage is in trouble, and Sylvia wants to move on. Their discussion at the café was impactful when she learns that he’s suspected her wanting to leave and tells her what his lawyer has stated.
The story has Maya getting away from her frustrated mother that results in a few sweet scenes of Maya taking a trolley to the beach, meeting a boy, and kissing him.
These scenes and more are not integrated very well into the overall theme of the film, which to me, was about Frankie trying to say goodbye.
There was little character development for all the characters, and therefore the audience is left to fill in the vast spaces left by the dialogue about past events.
Huppert is good as Frankie. However, I didn’t really care about her character or her story. Tomei was excellent, and she showed a fantastic range of emotions during her conversations with Gary and Frankie. Renier was strong as the son who was probably not very important to his famous mother, Frankie. Gleeson seemed very miscast and sort of bumbled through this role. I didn’t sense any chemistry between him and Frankie and didn’t see how they could have been married. Robinson was dynamic as a woman who wanted to leave her husband because she didn’t feel like there was anything left for her in her relationship. Bakare was good as Sylvia’s husband, who loved his wife but knew she really wanted to leave. Nanua was terrific as the young girl who went to explore the coastal town and discovered more about herself. Kinnear was well cast as an opportunist. Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias wrote this bland screenplay. The dialogue never really seemed to go anywhere and seem to fall into a state of languishment. Sachs directed this film, and I’m not sure what it is he really wanted to say or express.
Overall: There was little in this film about human nature, but Sintra seems like a beautiful place to visit.