Hide and Seek -- Film Review

Hide and Seek

Directed by Joanna Coates

This film is a cross between summer camp, group therapy, and pornography.   Written by Daniel Metz and Joanna Coates, who are married to each other, perhaps it is a response to marriage.  This fantasy of four young people isolated in a pastoral setting, all having sex together and playing children's dress up games to act out the conflicts in their lives is partly idealistic and mostly escapist.  The characters, except for Charlotte (Hannah Arterton), have no past and no connection to the outside world.  Nobody works; they are presumably a group of independently wealthy young actors.  It is not clear how they came together for this adventure in sex and self exploration, but it is clear that they do not know each other at the beginning, and are very uptight and uneasy with one another.  They like to create structure for their interactions.  They schedule who sleeps with who, they create performances for each other, they dress up in costumes and play role games like kids.  But they have sex like people in their 20s.  The sex is pretty good in this film.  There is one scene where one of the males is laying sideways across a bed with full erection masturbating.  Charlotte comes into the room and unexpectedly finds him in thrall, then quietly stands and watches.  It's hot. 

The film is rather slow moving, but then, it is not going anywhere.  It doesn't really develop very much, nor do any of the characters, with the exception of Charlotte.   Charlotte is the only one with an explicit connection to the outside world and her own past.  She brings an ex-boyfriend to the farm to stay for a few days, apparently without an advance notice to any of the others in the group.  Simon (Joe Banks) shows up as a surprise and takes up an uneasy residence.  He is not well received by the group and his appeal to Charlotte to return to him fails. 

The scene I liked best from the film was an enactment of a funeral for Simon that the four did after his departure.  They put an effigy in a makeshift casket, solemnly carried it outside and ceremonially burned it.  This was very good because it illustrates very well what you need to do when you break up with someone.  You have to have a funeral and burn the body of the deceased ex-lover, creating visible finality.  It makes that person psychologically dead -- in your mind -- and allows you to move on and open yourself to new possibilities.  It is very important to be able to do that. 

I saw this at the Mill Valley Film Festival and afterward they had a Q&A with Daniel Metz and Rhea Mole, who played Leah in the film.  I asked Daniel to explain the relationship between the title, Hide and Seek, and the film.  He gave a rather lame response about the allusion the game Hide and Seek makes to childhood and how it resonates with the childlike play of the group depicted in the film.  OK, but that is a very oblique connection.  The content of the film doesn't really relate to the performance of Hide and Seek as a childhood game.  I think titles are important and this title could use a little more imagination. 

This film is a little reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman in its introspection, but it is far less dreary.  Bergman's characters are depressed and self absorbed.  These characters have a genuine emotional and psychological connection to one another, despite the fact that they use role playing games for much of their communication.   Active, satisfying sex also gives them strong emotional bonds and a pervasive  underlying spirit of good will and mutual interconnection. 

There is a lot that could be criticized about this fantasy and its viability as a lifestyle.  Particularly, since this film isolates the four from most connection to the larger society.  It is those outside connections that create stresses and pressures that often derail such alternative lifestyle experiments.  This film also does not deal with who these people are in terms of their development as persons, where they came from, and why and how they gravitated toward this exotic experiment with a group of strangers.   The internal dynamics driving each of them as individuals is left unexplored, and those forces would undoubtedly impact the outcome of such an experiment. 

One thing I would judge positive about the film is that its portrayal of the characters and their lifestyle is ultimately optimistic.  It does not end with failure and breakup and estrangement.  All four of them remain committed to the group of four, despite an array of assaults, both internal and external.  They feel it is a rewarding, enriching, happy experience and at the end they are staying together.  I don't know if that counts as happily ever after, but it is an upbeat, positive judgment.  The film puts forward an interesting, unusual alternative lifestyle and presents it sympathetically.  It leaves a lot to be desired in the execution, but I am in accord with its spirit.