Weekend

Overview

One Friday night at a club, two people hook up. The next morning, they want to prolong their stay in each other's company just a little. By the following day, they realise their casual encounter is based on a real connection. This could be something special. They're happy and they're scared.

This may be romance as we know it, yet it's rarely the romance we sit down to watch on screen. When a movie does come along that cuts through the usual syrupyness, drama and meet-cutes to tell a relatable story, it's refreshing.

In the case of Weekend, the love-struck are Londoners Russell (Tom Cullen) and Glen (Chris New), and an extra hurdle stands in front of their future happiness: Glen is leaving on Sunday night to start a two-year art course in Oregon. His dreams and sense of self are invested in the move, and he's shaken to be reminded that there may be reasons to stay.

This is a quaint, intimate, indie love story in the vein of Before Sunrise. In practice, that means there's a lot of inane dialogue of the "Catherine, can I get another plate? Oh, you need one as well? Okay, get two" variety, but when this chatter stumbles into those everyday, non-flowery moments of unpretentious insight, it's touching in a way extraordinary poetry can't be.

Writer/director Andrew Haigh might seem to but doesn't quite let the gender of the couple become the whole story. His characters' lives, are, of course, affected by their sexuality — Russell is insecure with his; Glenn's exhibitionism covers up his real dissatisfaction with his life — but their sexuality is not all that shapes their characters or their journey. Weekend has something to say about how love fits into our messy, complicated lives and a Hollywood trope (the last-minute airport declaration of love, ugh) it wants to play off.

The one thing that makes Weekend unbelievable is timing: There's no way two people could fit in this many activities in one 48-hour period, even with stimulants and excellent time management skills.