Hot Milk review: Fiona Shaw steals the show in meandering, quiet film about repressed emotion
Shaw stuns as a misanthropic mother who, along with her beleaguered adult daughter (Emma Mackey), is seeking a cure for a mysterious illness
By Gary Grimes
If there’s one thing Fiona Shaw can do well (though there are, of course, many things she can do well), it’s play a difficult older woman with a mysterious past.
In recent years, she has stolen the show with appearances as Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s unflinching therapist in Fleabag and Jodie Comer’s bemused MI6 boss in Killing Eve. Most recently, she was a bright spot in a frustrating sophomore season of Bad Sisters, playing the troublemaking Angelica who becomes a hilarious thorn in the side of Sharon Horgan’s coven.
And again, here in Hot Milk, a big screen adaptation of Deborah Levy’s 2016 novel of the same name, she provides the backbone of this strange and quiet drama. Shaw plays Rose, the misanthropic mother of Emma Mackey‘s Sofia, who has travelled with her daughter to Spain to seek treatment for a mysterious illness which has left her largely unable to walk, save for a few unexplained instances over the years in which she has been miraculously able take to her feet.
As Rose, Shaw embodies every fibre of the nagging Irish mammy. Anyone who has ever gone on holiday with their mother will be able to feel Sofia’s pain, as Rose takes issue with everything from the taste of the bottled water Sofia buys to the speed of service in a local restaurant (“How long does it take to ladle out a bowl of bean soup?”). But Rose is not on a holiday – she has remortgaged her house to spend £25,000 in the hope that a new experimental treatment offered by holistic healer Gomez will help her walk again.
Gomez, a handsome and pensive doctor, clearly believes Rose’s condition is psychosomatic and implores her to delve deep into her past to confront repressed traumas which may be holding her back. Rose is largely resistant to his ways, until one moment in which she relinquishes to the doctor’s prying and, in a stunning performance by Shaw, unearths some unspecified childhood trauma related to her mother and siblings – thus establishing one of the film’s many half-mysteries.
Meanwhile, daughter Sofia spends most her time ignoring her mother’s passive aggressive remarks and sulking around the small coastal town in which they’ve found themselves. That is, until her world is altered by an aloof German woman named Ingrid who quite literally strides into her life on a horse whilst she is sunbathing on the beach. Sofia soon becomes obsessed with Ingrid, beginning a sexual liaison and deep yearning which is momentarily interrupted by a disturbing admission from Ingrid about her past.
Sex Education star Mackey brings a believable fragility to Sofia who seems perpetually on the verge of tears as she chokes down her frustration with both her mother and surroundings. The actress’s striking beauty also helps her to command the screen at every juncture here. As the film progresses, Sofia finds it increasingly difficult to maintain her composure, completely unravelling at one point as she brandishes a kitchen knife at their neighbour who is keeping a barking dog tied up on his roof, demanding the dog’s immediate liberation.
Director Rebecca Lenkiewicz, perhaps best known for helming another sapphic drama, the Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz vehicle Disobedience, employs a restrained approach in telling this meandering story, evoking the stark vibe of Pedro Almodóvar films, punctuated occasionally by surrealist imagery like a quick shot of Sofia sitting in a wheelchair underwater.
The film culminates in Sofia pressuring Rose into divulging her past trauma, revealing a dark family secret related to one of the gravest shames in Ireland’s all-too-recent history, before ending on a cliffhanger when she seeks clarity on film’s most important mystery – can Rose walk after all?
Despite affecting performances from both Shaw and Mackey, and some interesting artistic choices by Lenkiewicz, the film manages to feel longer than its svelte 93 minute run time. This might be due to the amount of time spent lingering with Ingrid, who we understand is a beguiling force in Sofia’s world, but it’s never really clear what her appeal is beyond her availability to hang out and offer Sofia a reprieve from her mother’s company.
Hot Milk is currently screening as part of BFI Flare. You can purchase tickets to the remaining screenings here.