Departure film review ★★★★★

Departure begins with an ending. Middle-class, middle-aged Beatrice (Juliet Stevenson) is packing up her home in the South of France, helped by her teenage son Elliot (Alex Lawther), a would-be writer perennially garbed in a moth-eaten soldier’s jacket.

It doesn’t take long to realise that Beatrice’s marriage is in decline, but as her relationship is disintegrating, Elliot is falling in love. At first, he sees Clément (Phénix Brossard) from afar, watching as he dives into the river. But he soon strikes up an acquaintance with the holidaying Parisian, and a romance blossoms. Even from the start, there’s tenderness in the teasing; Clément jibes Elliot for his pretension, and in turn Elliot taunts Clément for his gruffness.

So there we have the basic counterpoint; one relationship withers, another comes into bloom. But the film is too nuanced to settle into such a binary formulation. Elliot believes his mother to be a slightly lifeless sort. But, as it turns out, he’s wrong; the end of marriage does not equal the end of desire.

It’s a carefully made film; tastefully, at times beautifully, shot, and attentive to its characters. But it’s careful to a fault. You can’t help but feel that it would benefit from a little more rawness.