Although he is much more lavish as an actor, he recently dazzled audiences as chief emergency room physician in the stunning ‘Hippocrates’ and could be seen in ‘Clear the Record’ and ‘Goodbye, You idiots’, Belgian Bouli Lanners reprises his role as director and screenwriter with ‘A love in Scotland’, winner of the Best Actor and Best Actress award at the Chicago Film Festival and with which the artist enters, for the first time, the romantic genre, also shooting in English.
‘A love in Scotland’ plays its cards very well, because it gradually creates its own romantic story, hiding the information adequately, which adds a point of intrigue to a story that is gradually conquering. Initially, it’s a tremendously dark story, as it tells how the protagonist, Phil, a Belgian man who took refuge in a small Scottish town on the Isle of Lewis, falls dead after suffering a stroke. This causes Millie, the daughter of the man Phil worked for, when she discovers she has lost her memory, lies and tells Phil that they had been having a secret affair prior to the event.
Lanners, who also signs and stars in the film, he takes advantage of the accident and the lie to gradually tell the birth of a passion, just as the fact that the story unfolds through a lie allows the truth to come to light. Although what makes the film astounding is its journey, in the way in which this story of passion is developing, in a contained and slow way, with a splendid natural setting, which is in tune with the mature character of its protagonists. Secondly, It’s nice to see two main characters of that age and far from stereotypes living a love story, because Lanners and Michelle Fairley waste chemistry.
Romantic story that conquers little by little
Though the tape has moments for its secondary show, particularly descriptive is Julian Glover as the educated but xenophobic farmer and owner of the land where the Belgian protagonist works and who explains how that British and rural arrogance for what comes from abroad was the main cause of Brexit; even if what stands out in his brief appearance is the ever brilliant Clovis Cornillac; “A love in Scotland” is realized thanks to the savoir-faire of its main actors.
After showing all the cards, the feature film leaves a deep impression on the audience, especially in relation to enjoying the present, which is, after all, the only thing that everyone has and it is what makes those daily moments that are enjoyed in that moment remain etched in the memory and that are then remembered with greater affection, like a warm caress given to the face. A message that crosses the emotional wall of the spectators thanks to the fact that Lanners is developing it little by little, with sequences full of intimacy and emotion.
It’s those details, along with a gorgeous lead tandem, that do ‘A love in Scotland’ is the delightful story of a mature passion, one that dazzles when you see it at the cinema and which, fortunately, endure as the last Gallic city in the midst of blockbuster fireworks and art and non-fiction productions.
Note: 7
The best: How the passion is forged between Lanners and Fairley.
Worse: The romantic story takes time to start, which means that the audience conquest is a little later.
Source: E Cartelera
