'Albatross' tells the story of a dysfunctional family (living in the Isle of Man) and all the cliches are on display: louche, middle-aged writer as a father; sympathetic, intelligent daughter; troubled, troublesome and sexy daughter's best friend; younger child with the knack of saying inappropriate things; mother-turned-harridan by the stresses of keepinng them all together. The soundtrack is obvious and plodding, too, and while the gorgeous Manx landscape is attractively filmed, I'm a bit baffled by the fact that characters apparently leave the island not by ferry or air, but by road. The ending is also bizarre, the "best friend" has supposedly wanted to be a writer, but having done nothing to encourage us to take that ambition seriously, the film suddenly asks it to serve as the crux of the its dramatic climax. Sadly, I've seen more offensive and incompetant movies, I've seen few with less orginality.
Review of Albatross
