Rarely has a film made me as cross on finishing as In Transit (dir Jaclyn Bethany). Billed as a tender queer drama, this quiet indie narrowly focussed on three people starts as a slow burn and builds to.... a slow burn out.
Lucy (Alex Sarrigeorgiou) and Tom (François Arnaud) live in a small town in Maine, where she is a bartender and he does some kind of work he doesn't like. Ilse (Jennifer Ehle), a midlife-crisis afflicted artist, wanders into Lucy's bar and does a sketch of her. This leads to Lucy modelling for her, unbeknownst to Tom.
So far, so High Art, Carol and many, many other films in which an older woman comes in contact with a younger woman to greater or lesser effect. In Transit spends a lot of time on the sittings Lucy does with Ilse, and Ehle delivers a twitchy, nervy performance, wittering on about her practice while saying very little. Hers is potentially the most interesting character, caught in a crossroads as her marriage is crumbling and her child (only heard in a crackly telephone call) seems uninterested in her. What does she want? And what does she want from Lucy?
Unfortunately, the script (by Sarrigeorgiou, who also produces) does not really do character development. Lucy remains frustratingly blank and passive, while Tom gets one explosive monologue which at least gives us some indication of his wants and needs. The two women, supposedly the film's interest, get nothing of this. The film feels neither queer nor tender. Such a disappointment.
In Transit has its world premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival on 17 August.
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