Jessica Brown-Findlay shines in new Brit comedy drama Albatross, a charming debut screenplay from Tamzin Rafn
Niall McCormick’s comedy drama about a friendship between two very different young women has a strong cast, a witty script, and only falters when it attempts to shift gear into the tragic mode. While it stays light and comic, Albatross is something of a gem.
The film has also uncovered something of a gem in young lead Jessica Brown-Findlay, who shows buckets
more charisma as teen rebel Emilia than she’s yet been allowed to as buttoned-up Lady Sybil in ITV’s Downton Abbey. Felicity Jones, the actress so likeable she almost made Chalet Girl enjoyable, is similarly strong as guileless and academically focused Beth.
Tamzin Rafn’s debut screenplay tells the story of Emilia’s odd-couple friendship with serious Beth, and the clandestine relationship she embarks upon with Beth’s father [Sebastian Koch playing a brilliantly self-important writer]. The backdrop, as so often seems to be the case with charming Brit comedies, is a tourism-friendly seaside town, and the whole takes place during the final year of Beth’s A levels and Oxford application.
Emilia’s character template is cut from that of Lydia in David Leland’s 1987 Wish You Were Here. Emilia shares Lydia’s enjoyably frank approach to sex, telling off authority figures and swearing. She’s at her most enjoyable when running rings around a priggish Oxford interviewee about her namesake Arthur Conan Doyle, and cutting Beth’s father down to size.
Emilia enters, and immediately eclipses Beth’s staid life, dazzling her in the way rebellious, clever, beautiful girls do. Emilia teaches Beth how to have fun, while Beth teaches Emilia about the value of friendship. If all that sounds a bit trite and twee to you, you’ll be pleased to know that Albatross does a nice line in pithy sharp dialogue, sharpening up the story’s fuzzy edges no end.
The film does struggle to decide who its lead is, starting off as a story about bookish Beth, into whose life a very welcome, exotically rebellious interloper arrives, before the narrative turns tail and follows Emilia home. Had the film stuck with Beth’s family, all of whom are a joy to watch, rather than delving into Emilia’s troubled home life and caricatured grandparents, a couple of slumps would have been avoided.
Both young actresses turn in great work however. Felicity Jones does wide-eyed innocence nicely, but shows a steelier side to Beth when her academic prospects hang in the balance. Brown-Findlay stays on the right side of likeable, which is important as teen rebellion always runs the risk of veering into the gauche and embarrassing when reflected back on the big screen.
Rafn’s script does teenage identity searching and frustration and very nicely indeed. The girls clearly feel they’re living in Morrissey’s seaside town they forgot to close down, despite their surroundings being postcard-gorgeous (if you haven’t booked a cottage break on the Isle of Man within a week of seeing it, you’re either broke, or blind).
The albatross of the film’s title does show up as a metaphor a little heavy-handedly and a little too often. Each of the main characters bears their own figurative marine bird around their neck, whether it’s a famous surname, an overbearing mother, a lost career, or a massively successful debut novel which is yet to be matched.
The conceit’s overuse is easily forgiven thanks to some great performances, with particular credit going to Sebastian Koch and Julia Ormond as Beth’s bickering parents. The couple is a rare treat, recognisable, yet exaggerated, painful, yet at times extremely funny to watch. A dinner scene marking Emilia’s first official introduction Beth’s parents is particularly lovely, well-acted and lightly comic, just like most of the rest of the film.
Lovely is about the measure of Albatross though, it’s a lovely piece of work, but no more than that. Still, there’s plenty of room for loveliness in our book, and on the basis of this debut, screenwriter Tamzin Rafn’s voice is a very welcome addition to modern British film.
The film has also uncovered something of a gem in young lead Jessica Brown-Findlay, who shows buckets
more charisma as teen rebel Emilia than she’s yet been allowed to as buttoned-up Lady Sybil in ITV’s Downton Abbey. Felicity Jones, the actress so likeable she almost made Chalet Girl enjoyable, is similarly strong as guileless and academically focused Beth.
Tamzin Rafn’s debut screenplay tells the story of Emilia’s odd-couple friendship with serious Beth, and the clandestine relationship she embarks upon with Beth’s father [Sebastian Koch playing a brilliantly self-important writer]. The backdrop, as so often seems to be the case with charming Brit comedies, is a tourism-friendly seaside town, and the whole takes place during the final year of Beth’s A levels and Oxford application.
Emilia’s character template is cut from that of Lydia in David Leland’s 1987 Wish You Were Here. Emilia shares Lydia’s enjoyably frank approach to sex, telling off authority figures and swearing. She’s at her most enjoyable when running rings around a priggish Oxford interviewee about her namesake Arthur Conan Doyle, and cutting Beth’s father down to size.
Emilia enters, and immediately eclipses Beth’s staid life, dazzling her in the way rebellious, clever, beautiful girls do. Emilia teaches Beth how to have fun, while Beth teaches Emilia about the value of friendship. If all that sounds a bit trite and twee to you, you’ll be pleased to know that Albatross does a nice line in pithy sharp dialogue, sharpening up the story’s fuzzy edges no end.
The film does struggle to decide who its lead is, starting off as a story about bookish Beth, into whose life a very welcome, exotically rebellious interloper arrives, before the narrative turns tail and follows Emilia home. Had the film stuck with Beth’s family, all of whom are a joy to watch, rather than delving into Emilia’s troubled home life and caricatured grandparents, a couple of slumps would have been avoided.
Both young actresses turn in great work however. Felicity Jones does wide-eyed innocence nicely, but shows a steelier side to Beth when her academic prospects hang in the balance. Brown-Findlay stays on the right side of likeable, which is important as teen rebellion always runs the risk of veering into the gauche and embarrassing when reflected back on the big screen.
Rafn’s script does teenage identity searching and frustration and very nicely indeed. The girls clearly feel they’re living in Morrissey’s seaside town they forgot to close down, despite their surroundings being postcard-gorgeous (if you haven’t booked a cottage break on the Isle of Man within a week of seeing it, you’re either broke, or blind).
The albatross of the film’s title does show up as a metaphor a little heavy-handedly and a little too often. Each of the main characters bears their own figurative marine bird around their neck, whether it’s a famous surname, an overbearing mother, a lost career, or a massively successful debut novel which is yet to be matched.
The conceit’s overuse is easily forgiven thanks to some great performances, with particular credit going to Sebastian Koch and Julia Ormond as Beth’s bickering parents. The couple is a rare treat, recognisable, yet exaggerated, painful, yet at times extremely funny to watch. A dinner scene marking Emilia’s first official introduction Beth’s parents is particularly lovely, well-acted and lightly comic, just like most of the rest of the film.
Lovely is about the measure of Albatross though, it’s a lovely piece of work, but no more than that. Still, there’s plenty of room for loveliness in our book, and on the basis of this debut, screenwriter Tamzin Rafn’s voice is a very welcome addition to modern British film.
