14 May 21
Harry Macqueen
Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth, Pippa Haywood
25 June
Travelling in their old RV across England, Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci) are visiting friends, family and places that have been important to them during a relationship that spans many years. For Tusker, however, this is essentially a farewell tour. His dementia is progressively eating away at his memory and both lovers know he will soon forget all he has ever known. It is a profoundly upsetting subject that English director Harry Macqueen approaches with great tact and realism, observing the impact of the illness on a couple so closely intertwined that they cannot hide anything from each other: not their fears, not their sorrow, not their anger nor regrets.
Macqueen's experience as an actor himself no doubt informs the performances of Firth and Tucci who, in just a few brushstrokes, together paint a vivid portrait of the kind of all-encompassing love that only becomes deeper with time. Tusker and Sam's relationship is full of tenderness and gentle teasing, and Tucci's natural warmth is a perfect counterpoint to Firth's more impatient and dry behaviour. Firth brings his characteristic mix of British awkwardness, seriousness and charm to his performance as a man not ready to lose the love of his life. The two actors quietly deliver some of the best work of their careers in a film that gracefully explores the many differences of scale that make up existence: from kind gestures and words to everlasting love; from half-forgotten anecdotes to the full lives they conjure up; from the small space inside a tiny RV to the vast expanse of stars above.