2020-04-01_Total_Film

CERTIFICATETBCDIRECTORWernerHerzogSTARRINGIshiiYuichiMahiro

TanimotoMikiFujimakiTakashiNakataniShunIshigakiSCREENPLAY

Werner HerzogDISTRIBUTORModernFilmsRUNNINGTIMEmins

FAMILY ROMANCE , LLC.

MISBEHAVIOUR

Daddy issues...

War of Miss World...

CERTIFICATE    ADIRECTORPhilippaLowthorpeSTARRINGKeiraKnightley

GuguMbatha-RawJessieBuckleyKeeleyHawesLesleyManvilleSCREENPLAY

RebeccaFraynGabyChiappeDISTRIBUTORPatheRUNNINGTIME mins

culture is put further under

the microscope with a visit

to a robot-staffed hotel,

complete with a tank full of

mechanised fish.

A tragicomic tale of lost souls,

Family Romance, LLC. is an often

bizarre experience – and by

Herzog’s standards, rather

gentle. But in a time where

people are frequently looking for

alternate experiences to real life,

virtual or otherwise, it’s a film

that quietly captures the

zeitgeist. James Mottram

intended to be viewed as a sexist

misogynist or an unreconstructed

relic who should know better.

The only thing the film seems

certain of is that apartheid was a

very bad thing – though even here,

it declines to take organiser Eric

Morley (a blustering Rhys Ifans)

to task for permitting South Africa

to enter two contestants instead

of banning the country. Between

Knightley’s cool intelligence and

Mbatha-Raw’s serene elegance,

there is room for Jessie Buckley

to shine as a spirited feminist

and for Lesley Manville and

Keeley Hawes to be patiently

long-suffering. Neil Smith

Playing a version of himself,

Ishii Yuichi is an entrepreneur

who, in reality, set up ‘Family

Romance’, a company that

provides ‘relatives’ to rent. When

we meet him, amid the beautiful

cherry blossom of a Tokyo park,

he is with a young girl, 12-year-

old Mahiro Tanimoto, who has

no relationship with her father.

Ishii embodies her papa for a

time, in just one of the many

oddities that Herzog explores.

If his growing relationship

with Mahiro forms the film’s

core, Ishii doesn’t just do dads;

at one point, he’s standing in

for a railway employee, taking

a barracking from his boss for

the train being fractionally late.

The quirkier side of Japanese

Philippa Lowthorpe’s film,

partly inspired by a 2010 Radio 4

programme that brought all sides

together, proves an entertaining

watch as it follows the

preparations for the contest, the

planning of the protest and the

parallel journeys of air hostess-

turned-‘Miss Grenada’ Jennifer

Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and

mature student-turned-activist

Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley).

But in its determination to be

even-handed, Misbehaviour

manages to fudge the issue,

lacking a clear point of view on

both its subject and its characters.

We’re never entirely sure, for

example, if Jennifer is a naïve

pawn of vested interests or a

canny operator seeking to turn the

contest to her advantage. Nor can

we be certain if host Bob Hope

(an on-form Greg Kinnear) is

W

erner Herzog, that seeker of new worlds, is back

once again. This Japanese-set docu-fiction isn’t

quite as exotic as the Amazon jungle of Fitzcarraldo

or the snow-peaked Antarctica seen in Encounters At

The End Of The World, but it’s fitting that the roaming Herzog should

be drawn to the more curious side of Japanese life.

B

eauty queens and women’s libbers clash at Miss World

in this playful recreation of the 1970 contest in

London, famous both for being briefly halted by

stage-mounting protesters and for crowning the

competition’s first black winner.

THE VERDICT

Strange and engaging. It’s

not entirely successful, but

it’s a real one-off.

THE VERDICT

A lively, enjoyable yet

frustrating film that stubbornly

refuses to pick a side.

Eachsecretlywishedshewas

wearingtheother’soutfit

Nofamily?

Noproblem

OUT 1 MAY

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GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM APRIL 2020 | TOTAL FILM