In retrospect it is easy to say to oneself, "Oh yeah it was always going to happen like that ". In reference to Tamsin and Mona's emotional and sexual adventure though, director Pawlikowsky drops numerous flagrant hints as to the direction that the relationship will take.
Take for example they way in which the girls exchange long glances over Tamsin's singing cello, and how Mona observes Tamsin's able fingers and her bare foot lifting from the floorboard. Even on their first meeting, neither Mona's shyness nor# Tamsin's feigned indifference and middle class air (+ her higher physical position on the horse - a subtle touch), neither of these behaviours can hide the immediate connection between the girls : their equally isolated situations will bring them together.
I think that a more attentive observation to the girls personal presentation as an indicator of social class would have made the story yet more believable. Tamsin was often made to look 'classless', with loose hair, sexy short dresses and large hoop earrings. Meanwhile Mona did not seem to present herself as neatly as somebody of her class might do, particularly in terms of her oft unkempt hair. Why was it not tied back tight ? Where were HER hoop earrings ? Why was she always wearing a cotton tracksuit and never a nylon shellsuit ? Perhaps the costume designer and the director feared that more accentuated representations via the girls' dressing style would have made their exchange of worlds impossible for the viewer to comprehend, they just would have been TOO different.
These may seem strange observations to pick up on, but in such a class-based and image-conscious society as Britain 2004, such things should be considered. (One more thing : a working class girl from a small Yorkshire mining town somehow learnt to move very naturally to salsa music somewhere along the line : possible but not that credible).
Clothing aside, the superb acting was the coup de maitre of the film. Fantastic casting reminded me of the understated British film Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, mid-1990s). The jewel in the crown being Paddy Considine. He portrayed excellently the trauma of his slide from devout Christianity back into his fractured and deplorable world of before.
I would disagree with another viewer comment that we are left with a final impression of each of the girls coming out of their experience as stronger people : as Mona walks away at the end, what has she got to look forward to ?
Should we hate Tamsin for the way she plays with Mona's feelings ? Or should we pity her for the way that problems in her life (such as her father's affair) are muffled under layers of apparent security that accompany her middle class upbringing : money, private school education, a 'family life', etc.? In the long term, these factors are only obstacles to addressing the problems of unfulfilling human relationships, in whichever class of society they are found.
Take for example they way in which the girls exchange long glances over Tamsin's singing cello, and how Mona observes Tamsin's able fingers and her bare foot lifting from the floorboard. Even on their first meeting, neither Mona's shyness nor# Tamsin's feigned indifference and middle class air (+ her higher physical position on the horse - a subtle touch), neither of these behaviours can hide the immediate connection between the girls : their equally isolated situations will bring them together.
I think that a more attentive observation to the girls personal presentation as an indicator of social class would have made the story yet more believable. Tamsin was often made to look 'classless', with loose hair, sexy short dresses and large hoop earrings. Meanwhile Mona did not seem to present herself as neatly as somebody of her class might do, particularly in terms of her oft unkempt hair. Why was it not tied back tight ? Where were HER hoop earrings ? Why was she always wearing a cotton tracksuit and never a nylon shellsuit ? Perhaps the costume designer and the director feared that more accentuated representations via the girls' dressing style would have made their exchange of worlds impossible for the viewer to comprehend, they just would have been TOO different.
These may seem strange observations to pick up on, but in such a class-based and image-conscious society as Britain 2004, such things should be considered. (One more thing : a working class girl from a small Yorkshire mining town somehow learnt to move very naturally to salsa music somewhere along the line : possible but not that credible).
Clothing aside, the superb acting was the coup de maitre of the film. Fantastic casting reminded me of the understated British film Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, mid-1990s). The jewel in the crown being Paddy Considine. He portrayed excellently the trauma of his slide from devout Christianity back into his fractured and deplorable world of before.
I would disagree with another viewer comment that we are left with a final impression of each of the girls coming out of their experience as stronger people : as Mona walks away at the end, what has she got to look forward to ?
Should we hate Tamsin for the way she plays with Mona's feelings ? Or should we pity her for the way that problems in her life (such as her father's affair) are muffled under layers of apparent security that accompany her middle class upbringing : money, private school education, a 'family life', etc.? In the long term, these factors are only obstacles to addressing the problems of unfulfilling human relationships, in whichever class of society they are found.