With a strange illness, a mother and her daughter embark on a journey to the Spanish coast to find a cure, and along the way the daughter discovers another reality far from her controlling mother.

Based on an acclaimed 2016 novel by Deborah Levy, ‘Hot Milk’ is the directorial debut from screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz, who has previously written the likes of ‘Ida’ and ‘She Said’. Like her previous screenwriting efforts, this is a film with a specific female focus, about a mother (Rose) and daughter (Sofia) who travel to the Spanish coast in search of a medical cure for the paralysis that has left Rose wheelchair bound since Sofia was a young girl. Starring Fiona Shaw as Rose, alongside Emma Mackey as Sofia, it’s an intriguing premise that unfortunately Lenkiewicz is unable to wrestle into a compelling movie.

The central thrust of the movie is about the relationship between mother and daughter, and whether Rose’s paralysis is physical or psychosomatic. It also explores the impact Rose’s condition has had on Sofia, where her reliance on Sofia has led to Sofia being resentful about how it has held back her life. As this dynamic plays out, we also follow Sofia as she meets the carefree Ingrid (Vicky Krieps), and develops a fling with her, played out against the sea sweeping against the coastline. It’s artfully constructed, with a nice score and strong performances, but narratively it’s all over the place and I found it pretty difficult to connect with.

That’s a real shame as the performances are very good, especially Fiona Shaw who is as good as she’s ever been as the difficult to understand Rose. Mackey is also good, but Lenkiewicz never really has a handle on her character and what her motivations are – she’s aimless until all of a sudden she’s not. That then brings us to one of the most infuriating endings of a recent movie, which I shan’t elaborate on more her for spoiler reasons, Suffice to say for me at least, it undercut what little had been developed in the movie to this point and felt unearned. There’s a lot of ingredients in ‘Hot Milk’ that could have been blended into a really good film, but sadly this is a bit of a misfire and I was pretty disappointed in it.

Rating: 2/5

Directed By: Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Starring: Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, Vicky Krieps, Vincent Perez, Patsy Ferran and Yann Gael

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt17538632/