EIFF 2015 – The Incident

Jul 1, 2015 | Posted by in EIFF 2015
EIFF 2015

Jane Linfoot’s The Incident tells the story of a well to do middle class -actually probably upper class- couple who suffer through an incident that causes them to have a rough time.

I don’t have a lot to say about this film other than it’s a complete slog to sit through. The characters and situations are so ill defined that it’s nearly impossible to empathise with them in any way. From the beginning everyone involved makes incredibly stupid decisions that no rational human being would even consider.

The basic story is that a young married couple named Joe (Tom Hughes) and Annabel (Ruta Gedmintas) who have separate encounters with a young girl named Lily (Tasha Connor) and having her in their lives causes no end of problems for them.

The Incident

No poster but this accurately represents the film

For reasons that are never explained Joe decides to have sex with her in his car and pay her for it while waiting on his pizza to be ready. It’s something that seems to prey on his mind for the rest of the film and causes and unseen wedge to be driven into his marriage. If I’m supposed to feel sympathy for that then I don’t see why as it had not been established as a relationship that was failing or even encountering difficulties. As far as I could tell Joe was cheating on his wife because he was bored while waiting on his pizza.

Annabel encounters Lily as she goes about her daily business and regards her with curiosity…I think. I honestly feel like it could also be disgust but I can’t really be sure. At any rate they cross paths more often than random chance would allow until Lily decides to follow her home, eat some of her food, try on some of her clothes and generally poke around the house for a bit. She does this until going into her bedroom and frightening the living daylights out of her.

This would be the “incident” that the title refers to. It causes Annabel to become more distanced from Joe…I assume because I don’t really see the difference from before the incident happened. She becomes obsessed with Lily and really needs closure on the whole thing so arranges a meeting with her to ask her why she did it.

I’m actually baffled by how impossibly meandering the story is. The only positive things I can really say is that it’s nicely shot and the acting is a good example of having to work with some of the worst written material I have ever come across. It’s a shame as on paper this could have been an interesting premise but it would require some actual drama to help move this along. Instead what we get is endless scenes of people staring at other people while saying absolutely nothing and dialogue that is about as interesting as an instructional video on how to use safety goggles. I must seem like I’m being really harsh on this film but there is almost nothing to redeem it.

I would say that this isn’t worth your time. There are better relationship dramas out there that would prove to be a productive use of your time. This one just fails on almost every level.

Overall
  • 1/10
    The Incident - 1/10
1/10

Summary

Not much to recommend here other than a collection of actors who make the best of what limited material they are given.

This film fails on almost every level with a story full of terrible choices that no rational humans would make as well as a complete lack of pacing making the whole thing a complete chore to sit through.

I found it impossible to identify with any of the characters and couldn’t help but notice the many weaknesses in the story throughout.

Definitely not one to check out. There are better relationship dramas out there so this one shouldn’t even come close to making the list.

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