Waiting a week to review a film or a play can be problematic. Thinking back, surely the film's faults will rise to the surface, the ones you tended to overlook at the time. Of course, the opposite could be true; mulling over a film in your head might make it grow with hindsight. Walking out of Francis Lee's "God's Own Country" I knew I had seen something special; I knew I had seen a film that was a triumph of both LGBT cinema and of British cinema in general. A week later, and taking everything into account, I'm inclined to think that "God's Own Country" could be the best film of the year.
Like Andrew Haigh's "45 Years" this is an incredibly simple film about very complex emotions and issues. The setting is a farm in Yorkshire. The farm isn't successful and in time, it may well go under. It's run by Martin, (Ian Hart), but he's incapable of working due to injury and later illness. The work, (looking after the sheep and the cattle), is done by his taciturn son Johnny, (Josh O'Connor). Johnny is gay but he's practically homophobic; after a quick bout of sex with a guy he's picked up in a cafe, he just doesn't want to know and brushes the guy off with the words. "We? No." Then Gheorghe comes into his life; he's the Romanian farm-hand they hire, initially for a week, to help with the lambing. At first Johnny treats Gheorghe like dirt, asking him if he's 'a Paki' and calling him 'Gypo' and when, finally, they do have sex it's a rough act of lust borne out of loneliness on both their parts.
It's here that comparisons with "Brokeback Mountain" are bound to be raised, both in the setting and the way in which the initial attraction happens, (there's a later, and quite disarmingly beautiful, moment that will remind you of a similar scene in "Brokeback Mountain"), but Francis Lee's film is a much more honest and a much finer film than Ang Lee's which aimed for a Hollywood demographic.
"God's Own Country" is a film that hearkens back to the great British kitchen-sink movies of the sixties and to the kind of films that Ken Loach is still turning out. It feels 'real' and down-to-earth; at times it could be a documentary, (there are a lot of scenes showing life on a farm where the most dramatic thing that happens is a sheep or a cow giving birth). The relationship at the centre also feels real if, to some, a little unlikely. Perhaps the biggest, indeed the only, fault I can find with "God's Own Country" is in Lee's decision to make Gheorghe the strong, silent hunk who lands on Johnny's lap. Wish-fulfillment or what? Nevertheless, and without wanting to give too much away, it's edifying to finally see a gay-themed movie that doesn't end in tragedy. It's also superbly played by basically its cast of four. Both Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu are excellent as Johnny and Gheorghe, conveying so much with very little in the way of dialogue, while Ian Hart and especially Gemma Jones are wonderful as Johnny's father and grandmother. Jones is beautifully understated as a woman who accepts everything life throws at her with stoicism and a degree of humour.
Of course, this is a film that won't appeal to everyone. There are people who will find fault with the pace, with the lack of drama, with its political message and I am sure there will be gay men who will see in Johnny and Gheorghe things they may think don't ring true or simply dislike, (Johnny is far from sympathetic from the outset), and yet it is these very contradictions, together with Lee's wonderful sense of place, that marks this out as a great film in my eyes. And yes, it is deeply political without ever stressing that side of things. This may, indeed, be the first great post-Brexit picture to come out of the UK. However you choose to view it, it remains utterly unmissable.
Like Andrew Haigh's "45 Years" this is an incredibly simple film about very complex emotions and issues. The setting is a farm in Yorkshire. The farm isn't successful and in time, it may well go under. It's run by Martin, (Ian Hart), but he's incapable of working due to injury and later illness. The work, (looking after the sheep and the cattle), is done by his taciturn son Johnny, (Josh O'Connor). Johnny is gay but he's practically homophobic; after a quick bout of sex with a guy he's picked up in a cafe, he just doesn't want to know and brushes the guy off with the words. "We? No." Then Gheorghe comes into his life; he's the Romanian farm-hand they hire, initially for a week, to help with the lambing. At first Johnny treats Gheorghe like dirt, asking him if he's 'a Paki' and calling him 'Gypo' and when, finally, they do have sex it's a rough act of lust borne out of loneliness on both their parts.
It's here that comparisons with "Brokeback Mountain" are bound to be raised, both in the setting and the way in which the initial attraction happens, (there's a later, and quite disarmingly beautiful, moment that will remind you of a similar scene in "Brokeback Mountain"), but Francis Lee's film is a much more honest and a much finer film than Ang Lee's which aimed for a Hollywood demographic.
"God's Own Country" is a film that hearkens back to the great British kitchen-sink movies of the sixties and to the kind of films that Ken Loach is still turning out. It feels 'real' and down-to-earth; at times it could be a documentary, (there are a lot of scenes showing life on a farm where the most dramatic thing that happens is a sheep or a cow giving birth). The relationship at the centre also feels real if, to some, a little unlikely. Perhaps the biggest, indeed the only, fault I can find with "God's Own Country" is in Lee's decision to make Gheorghe the strong, silent hunk who lands on Johnny's lap. Wish-fulfillment or what? Nevertheless, and without wanting to give too much away, it's edifying to finally see a gay-themed movie that doesn't end in tragedy. It's also superbly played by basically its cast of four. Both Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu are excellent as Johnny and Gheorghe, conveying so much with very little in the way of dialogue, while Ian Hart and especially Gemma Jones are wonderful as Johnny's father and grandmother. Jones is beautifully understated as a woman who accepts everything life throws at her with stoicism and a degree of humour.
Of course, this is a film that won't appeal to everyone. There are people who will find fault with the pace, with the lack of drama, with its political message and I am sure there will be gay men who will see in Johnny and Gheorghe things they may think don't ring true or simply dislike, (Johnny is far from sympathetic from the outset), and yet it is these very contradictions, together with Lee's wonderful sense of place, that marks this out as a great film in my eyes. And yes, it is deeply political without ever stressing that side of things. This may, indeed, be the first great post-Brexit picture to come out of the UK. However you choose to view it, it remains utterly unmissable.