Daphne

While I did warm to the character of Daphne, this seemed to be a very poor English cousin of a philosophical French film. A not unpleasant journey, but ultimately this was a ride on the (pre-discontinuous) Circle Line: we eventually ended up pretty much where we had started.

A British drama; A story about a sardonic, self-centred, big city thirtysomething changed by an act of violence. The main character is well observed, expressing a woman's despair in seeking a relationship in a modern setting, especially with soulless men. But, there are not many redeeming features to the character and the tale with its doses of nihilism and selfishness backed up by overwordy dialogue clotted with expletives and psychobabble. Emily Beecham's portrayal is good in conveying a woman in flux, unhappy, sexually adventurous and self-destructive, but there are a few moments of croaky voiced affectation.

This film was marked under the comedy genre but the only thing funny about this film was the joke the creators played on anyone thinking it would be an entertaining film. The first thing that caught my attention was the music. Unless this film was intended to be set in the 90s, I couldn't understand the protagonist's fascination with awful 90s pop music. That being said, the film is entirely too British to have ever stood a chance in the mainstream. The dialogue is basically just characters rattling off a bunch of British slang but not in a good way like films such as Snatch. The funniest thing in the movie was when the thief held up the store with a yellow pairing knife that I could only imagine he got from his mom's kitchen. If the point of the film was to portray some girl's existential crisis, it failed. If it was meant to just entertain, it also failed. Overall, this film was a failure.

How to express how dull ,tedious and unlikeable this film is . Imagine being stuck in a small train carriage with Jason Manford , Colleen Nolan , Jo Brand , Alex Salmond , Alan Davies and Mandy Dingle , that would be preferable to watching this film . Godawful

A woman in her 30s who's rude, obnoxious, drugs and alcohol consuming, promiscuous, bigoted and also hates her mother. Who does this remind you of? If you thought Fleabag, you're right. But, in this context, we're talking about Daphne. This low-budget comedy prances around with its tropes that Fleabag is known for. However, unlike Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emily Beecham does not have that wide-eyed wicked stare that Fleabag is famous for. She's rather tamed. But, her attitude nonetheless yells "I'm a b****." I usually like to watch films such as Daphne, ones that don't have a concrete plot and simply follows its character(s) wander about. Daphne however was painfully clear that it wasn't an original idea or even a better interpretation of the self-destructive woman. I did enjoy Daphne's reaction to a crime that happens in a small grocery store. But, this was early in the film and I still had high hopes. It all comes down crashing. I think the whole "self-destructive woman" concept can be tapped into to create more morally and ethically ambiguous films. It's just that Daphne didn't do it for me despite a decent performance from Emily Beecham

It really touched on a bit of what it's like to have PTSD, and to try to navigate a high pressure job while trying to find connection with other people/have relationships. It really felt like it hit on human experience pretty well, and it felt like it told some truth while asking hard questions about life. I felt understood while watching it, and don't really see Daphne as some quirky person, but someone who is traumatized. I feel like the film isn't afraid to take a rest from telling you exactly what is going on in Daphne's head at every minute and turn and let you breathe with the main character as she tries to find her way through coping. As for the therapist, I feel like being that directive right off the bat would be a bit off putting for any client. Jumping right in and talking about the trauma can certainly be re-traumatizing to say the least. So that didn't feel realistic at all. I understand wanting to push forward with that part of the narrative because Good Will Hunting is already a film, but I felt it could have been expounded upon more.

The cast included Geraldine James OBE, a well known British actress, who played Daphne's mother. The film is okay but not very entertaining. The film tries to hard to be a character driven film but falls flat. We never know what Daphne wants in life after a near tragedy. She does seem to want connection to another human being.

There's some fantastic acting in this, particularly from Emily Beecham, but the whole film is utterly pointless. It's almost as if they didn't think they needed a plot or a script. Which wouldn't be so bad if the central character was more interesting, but as a character study it's way off. She's supposed to be 31 but she looks 21 and acts about 16. Maybe that's the point? I don't know and I really don't care. If you think there's something inherently interesting or original about watching an selfish, immature, narcissistic, emotionally disengaged young middle-class guardian reader snorting coke in a variety of sarf London toilets then this is possibly the film for you. If not then I wouldn't bother.