“Unknown”, review: the first film of the year that will make you cry

Unknown there is a story that begins peacefully, showing Adam’s complete isolation (Andrew Scott, from Sherlock And Fleabag) in an ultra-modern building. questionBut gradually, what appears to be a journey through the life of a depressed person becomes something more when the film points towards a fantastical scenario.

Director and screenwriter Andrew Hay (the same one from Looking from HBO), manages to turn an almost contemplative story into a center of questions. Many focused on reality and how Adam perceived it. Moreover, the plot is centered on a silent routine that obviously leads nowhere.

The only way. This free version of the novel Strangers Japanese writer Taichi Yamada, explores the idea of ​​the past, time and memory through symbols. And also, add elements of the fantasy genre to the film. Adam, in the privileged solitude of his apartment in a building of immaculate and technological beauty, seems to contemplate the world from a distance. This, although little can be observed. The London skyline, lonely and always at night, evokes a sense of sour despondency. The film plays with the idea of ​​not giving much explanation, so everything is covered in the plot within the first thirty minutes. It could be science fiction – which in some ways it is – or simply the way the script explores his character’s social isolation.

Adam is gay, a writer, and he lives apart from his entire family. He connects with his past through writing. At the same time, to a series of fragmentary memories. Between now and then, his life takes place in complete uprooting, which the script uses to cast doubt on the reality of what is shown on screen. The director has the skill to use close-ups of his character and then long shots of the flawless floor so that the issue is not immediately resolved. Especially when a third party comes onto the scene.

Nostalgic love story

When Harry (Paul Mescal, from After sunset, twilight) enters Adam’s life, Unknown He presents it as a sudden and romantic turn. After all, Scott’s character lived in complete solitude long enough for even the smallest details to be told by the plot.

However, this love between two men wounded by uprooting is not told as a conventional love story. The camera shows desire, lust and intimacy without going into detail about Harry’s place in the protagonist’s life. If, in fact, there is more to the relationship between them than just sex, the episodes show them together, in silence – or leading up to a big moment.

That’s when the plot Unknown offers a double reading of the apparent plot of intellectual history. Adam, who is obsessed with his childhood wounds and how to heal them, says he is going to his parents’ reunion. Not only because you are trying to heal (that’s part of the intention), but because you want to complete your cycle one way or another.

A trip to the past

The director and screenwriter manage to combine the feeling of travel – physical – with intellectual evolution. However, the most interesting twist in the film is that it adds an element with a supernatural look to the idea of ​​the reason why Adam goes in search of his parents.

In the midst of saying goodbye to his past as a reunion – and a new interpretation of death –unknown, In the second section it becomes an exploration of pain. And also about the experience of letting go of memories, from an allegorical point of view.

Adam, who believes in nothing other than his talent as a writer, must struggle with the feeling that his life is splitting into two. On the one hand, what he left behind in ultra-modern, sophisticated and seemingly empty London. On the other hand, the boy who was, who finds – no matter how impossible it may seem – in a city where time seems to move in no direction.

An adult romance with great actors

Unknown manages with impeccable elegance to balance the ideas of yesterday and today as important concepts for understanding half-healed psychological wounds. He doesn’t always manage to maintain the mystery he assumes, but when he does, The film shines in its clever ability to convey complex feelings without being too obvious.

And although there is a certain feeling of understatement in some moments in the end, the film is as emotional as it is well-directed enough to touch. This love story leading to forgiveness of one’s own wounds and the prospect of spiritual growth associated with emotional evolution is grounded and sober.An understated work of art that surprises with good visual and narrative work.