Amorous

In Joanna Coates's debut feature, four young people who are dissatisfied with their ordinary lives go off to one member's isolated inherited estate to fashion what they conceive as a mini-utopia. The quartet gambol about in the grass and take turns preparing skits to entertain each other during the evenings. They celebrate rituals, such as a somber mock funeral that is apparently designed to represent the death of their rejected, conventional histories. They also engage in sex, of course, and while two are male and two female, the permutations are various. The problem with the film (originally titled Hide and Seek) is that the four characters—Max (Josh O'Connor), Charlotte (Hannah Arterton), Jack (Daniel Metz), and Leah (Rea Mole)—are simply not very interesting. Amorous briefly comes to life twice: when a boyfriend of one of the girls unexpectedly shows up, only to be treated as an unwanted outsider, and when one of the couples pretends to have fallen in love in order to upset the others. Otherwise, watching these over-privileged, immature twentysomethings indulge in their meandering search for fulfillment is a chore and a bore (even with the graphic sexuality). Not recommended. (F. Swietek)