Back To The Garden, film review: Unengaging protagonists radiate smugness

(12A) Jon Sanders, 93 mins Starring: Anna Mottram, Bob Goody, Emma Garden

A still from the small budget film 'Back to the Garden'

Sanders is attempting something akin to Eric Rohmer's An Autumn's Tale with this low-budget, semi-improvised film about a group of old friends coming together to remember a colleague who died some time before.

The film has a slow but beguiling rhythm. Takes are held for an inordinately long time as characters sip tea, sit in gardens or walk across fields, musing over grief, fear of death, marriages and relationships.

The problem is that the protagonists are so unengaging. They're primarily elderly theatre folk who radiate complacency and smugness.