London River

I saw London River at a free IFC member screening, so I came in knowing very little about it besides…well, there’s a white woman and a black man that somehow get involved in each other’s lives. I never remember the synopsis that comes with these emails before the film; this is mostly from the picture attached:

And basically, I was right. The premise is that both Brenda Blethyn’s character Elizabeth and Soigui Kouyate’s character Ousmane have come to London to find their adult children after the 2005 London terrorist bomb attacks. Elizabeth comes from Gursney, England, after her daughter doesn’t return her calls, and Ousmane comes from France (although he is originally from West Africa) to try and find his son Ali, who he has almost no information about and hasn’t seen since he was six. Unsurprisingly, the two cross paths repeatedly, and it turns out that their children knew each other.

But the story isn’t really about the children; it’s about the conflict between the parents. Ousmane brings information about Elizabeth’s daughter, who was taking an Arabic class with his son, but Elizabeth, already scandalized by the fact that her daughter was living in a Muslim neighborhood, is automatically suspicious. They keep running into each other throughout the film, and eventually Elizabeth’s prejudice begins to erode as they realize that they have more in common than they thought.

If that sounds like I’m painting this film as super-cliche, well, it’s definitely kind of trite. Elizabeth even has a line that says the “more in common” theme. The overall message has been done before, and almost definitely done better. (A. O. Scott of the New York Times points to Driving Miss Daisy as an example, but I have not seen that film). Frankly, I’ve never liked that genre of film; Gran Torino is probably an exception, but to a certain extent it seems like the white character is getting congratulated at the end for not being a fucking racist, which of course is patiently taught by the black/asian/whatever character. Big whoop. You stopped being an asshole, do you want a goddamn medal?

I’m also very iffy about the use of a terrorist attack as a backdrop, but I think it works out alright in this context. Any twenty-something who lives alone knows that parents worry about their children, and we can all imagine the anxiety caused by a disaster in the vicinity of friends or family. There is also a very interesting element with Ousmane and his son; knowing nothing about his son besides the fact that he is Muslim and lives in London, when the news reveals that this was most likely a suicide bombing, he worries that his son might have been involved.

While those are points in the film’s favor, the real saving grace of London River is the acting. Sotigui Kouyake is a subtle, naturalist actor who can convey emotion with just his body, and Brenda Blethyn is fantastic at portraying both unease, anxiety, and sorrow. They are really the ones driving, or perhaps saving this film, depending on how you feel about the premise. For me, the writing wasn’t nearly good enough to overcome the triteness of the core themes.